THE  LIBRARY 

ST.  JOHN'S  SEMINARY 

Brighton,  Massachusetts 


s 


IRARY 


ST  JOHN'S  SEMINARY  LIB! 
99  LAKE  STREET 
BRIGHTON,  MA  02135         /4b    D 


/frsTi 


ST  JOHN'S  SEMINARY  LIBRARY 

99  LAKE  STREET 

BRIGHTON,  MA  02135 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  Member  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/lecturesoncertaiOOnewm 


LECTUEES 


ON   CERTAIN 


DIFFICULTIES  FELT  BY  ANGLICANS 

IN  SUBMITTING 
TO  THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH.   £  0  X 


/V6 

BY 

JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN, 

PRIEST  OF  THE  ORATORY  OF  ST.  PHILIP  NERI. 


DEFICIENT  PUERT  ET  LABORABUVT,  ET  JUVENES   IN  INFIRMITATE 

CaDEMT;   QUI   AlTTbM    SPErANT    IN    DnMINO,   MUTABUNT 

FORTITUDINEM." 


(From  the  Second  London  Edition.) 


NEW    YORK: 

OFFICE  OF  THE  N.  Y.   FREEMAN'S  JOURNAL, 

556    BROADWAY. 

1851. 


1 


'• 


PREFACE  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 

The  gratification  and  interest  with  which  our  edition  of  the 
Discourses  before  Mixkd  CONGREGATIONS,  by  the  illustrious 
Anglican  convert,  was  received  by  the  Catholic  community  of 
New  York,  is  our  sufficient  warrant  for  presenting  this  6econd 
volume,  containing  a  learned  review  of  the  Oxford  movement 
which  ended  in  the  conversion  of  so  large  a  number  of  distin- 
guished men,  and  giving  in  addition  a  most  eloquent  answer  to 
various  objections  that  are  made  to  the  Catholic  Church  by  her 
enemies. 

We  feel  nothing  farther  as  necessary  for  us  to  say  than  that 
the  American  Edition  is  a  careful  reproduction  of  the  London 
publication  under  the  direction  of  the  distinguished  author. 

New  York,  May  17th,  1851. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  ,  PAGE 

1.  On  the  relation  of  the  National  Church 

to  the  Nation  .  .  .       1 

II.  The  Movement  of  1833  uncongenial  to 

the  National  Church         .  .  .34 

III.  Life  in  the  Movement  of  1833  not  from 

'    the  National  Church         .         .         .68 

IV.  The  Providential  Direction  of  the  Move- 

ment of  1833  not  towards  the  Na- 
tional Church  .  .  .97 
V.  The  Providential  Direction  of  the  Move- 
ment of  1833  not  towards  a  Party 
in  the  National  Church  .  .  .  126 
VI.  The  Providential  Direction  of  the  Move- 
ment of  1833  not  towards  a  Branch 

Church 164 

VII.  The  Providential  Direction  of  the  Move- 
ment of  1833  not  towards  a  Sect      .  199 
VIII.  Political  State  of  Catholic  Countries  no 
Prejudice    to    the    Sanctity    of    the 

Church 230 

IX.  The  Religious  Character  of  Catholic 
Countries  no  Prejudice  to  the  Sanctity 
of  the  Church  .  .  .  .260 

X.  Differences  among   Catholics   ro  Preju- 
dice to  the  Unity  of  the  Chnreh  .   293 
XI.   Heretical    and    Sehismatical  Bodies  no 
Prejudice   to   the   Catholicity  of  the 

Church 326 

XII.  Christian    History  no  Prejudice   to  the 

Apostulicity  of  the  Church       .  .  859 


PREFACE 


It  may  occur  to  some  persons  to  feel  surprise,  that 
the  Author  of  the  following  Lectures,  instead  of 
occupying  himself  on  the  direct  proof  of  Catholicism, 
should  have  professed  no  more  than  to  remove  diffi- 
culties from  the  path  of  those  who  have  already  ad- 
mitted the  arguments  in  its  favor.  But,  in  the  first 
place,  he  reallv  does  not  think  that  there  is  any  call 
just  now  for  an  Apology  in  behalf  of  the  divine 
origin  of  the  Catholic  Church.  She  bears  her  un- 
earthly character  on  her  brow,  as  her  enemies  confess, 
by  imputing  her  miracles  to  Beelzebub.  There  is  an 
instinctive  feeling  of  curiosity,  interest,  anxiety,  and 
awe,  mingled  together  in  various  proportions,  accord- 
ing to  the  tempers  and  opinions  of  individuals,  when 
she  makes  her  appearance  in  any  neighborhood,  rich 
or  poor,  in  the  person  of  her  missioners  or  her  reli- 
gious communities.  Do  what  they  will,  denounce 
her  as  they  may,  her  enemies  cannot  quench  this 
emotion  in  the  breasts  of  others,  or  in  their  own. 
It  is  their  involuntary  homage  to  the  Notes  of  the 
Church ;  it  is  their  spontaneous  recognition  of  her 
royal  descent  and  her  imperial  claim ;  it  is  a  specific 
feeling,  which  no  other  religion  tends  to  excite.  Ju- 
daism, Mahometanism,  Anglicanism,  Methodism,  old 


VI 

religions  and  young,  romantic  and  common-place, 
have  not  the  spell.  The  presence  of  the  Church 
creates  a  discomposure  and  restlessness,  or  a  thrill 
of  exultation,  wherever  she  comes.  Meetings  are  held, 
denunciations  launched,  calumnies  spread  abroad, 
and  hearts  beat  secretly  the  while.  The  babe  leaps 
in  Elizabeth's  womb,  at  the  voice  of  her  in  whom  is 
inshrined  and  lives  the  Incarnate  Word.  Her  priests 
appeal  freely  to  the  consciences  of  all  comers,  to  say 
whether  they  have  not  a  superhuman  gift,  and  the 
multitude  by  silence  gives  consent.  They  look  like 
other  men ;  they  may  have  the  failings  of  other  men; 
they  may  have  as  little  worldly  advantages  as  the 
preachers  of  dissent;  they  may  lack  the  popular 
talents,  the  oratorical  power,  the  imposing  presence, 
which  are  found  elsewhere ;  but  they  inspire  confi- 
dence, or  at  least  reverence,  by  their  very  word. 
Those  who  come  to  jeer  and  scoff,  remain  to  pray. 

There  needs  no  treatise  then  on  the  Notes  of  the 
Church,  till  this  her  mysterious  influence  is  accounted 
for  and  destroyed;  still  less  is  it  necessary  just  at 
this  time,  when  the  writings  and  the  proceedings  of  a 
school  of  divines  in  the  Establishment  have,  against 
their  will  and  intention,  done  this  very  work  for  her 
as  regards  the  convictions  of  a  multitude  of  men. 
What  treatise  indeed  can  be  so  conclusive  in  this  day 
as  a  teaching  which  has  been  simple  and  intelligible 
in  its  principles;  imbibed  and  mastered  in  the  course 
of  years ;  gradually  developed,  improved,  corrected, 
adjusted,  aud  enlarged  ;  which  is  converging  in  many 
minds  at  once  to  one  resolution  as  its  limit,  and  which 
in  a  number  of  instances  has  been  completed  already 
by  acts  which,  more  powerfully  than  any  words,  at- 
test the  force  and  the  issue  of  the  argument  which 
it  involves  ?     Feeling,   then,  that  an  exhibition  of 


VI! 

the  direct  Evidences  for  Catholicism  is  not  the  want 
of  the  moment,  the  Author  has  had  no  thoughts  of 
addressing  himself  to  a  work,  which  could  not  be 
executed  by  any  who  undertook  it,  except  in  leisure 
and  with  great  deliberation.  At  present  the  thinking 
portion  of  society  is  either  very  near  the  Catholic 
Church,  or  very  far  from  her.  The  first  duty  of 
Catholics  is  to  house  those  in,  who  are  near  their 
doors;  it  will  be  time  afterwards  to  see  how  things 
lie  on  the  extended  field  of  philosophy  and  religion, 
when  this  has  been  done,  and  into  what  new  position 
the  controversy  has  fallen  :  as  yet  the  old  arguments 
suffice.  To  attempt  a  formal  dissertation  on  the 
Notes  of  the  Church  at  this  moment,  would  be  ruu- 
ning  the  risk  of  constructing  what  none  would  need 
now,  and  none  could  use  then. 

Those  surely  who  are  advancing  towards  the 
Church,  would  not  have  advanced  so  far  as  they 
have,  had  they  not  bad  sufficient  arguments  to  bring 
them  forward.  What  retards  their  progress,  is  not 
any  weakness  in  those  arguments,  but  the  force  of 
opposite  considerations,  speculative  or  practical, 
which  are  urged,  sometimes  against  the  Church, 
sometimes  against  their  submitting  to  her  authority. 
They  would  have  no  doubt  about  their  duty,  but  for 
the  charges  brought  against  her,  or  the  remonstrances 
addressed  to  themselves  ;  charges  and  remonstrances 
which,  whatever  their  intrinsic  cogency,  are  abun- 
dantly sufficient  for  their  purpose,  where  there  are 
so  many  inducements,  whether  from  wrong  feeling, 
or  it  firm  ty,  or  even  error  of  conscience,  to  listen  to 
them.  Such  persons,  then,  have  a  claim  on  us  to  be 
fortified  in  their  true  perceptions  and  their  religious 
resolutions,  against  the  calumnies,  prejudices,  mis- 
takes,  and  iguorance  of   their  friends    and   of  the 


Vlll 

world,  against  the  undue  influence  exerted  on  their 
minds  by  the  real  difficulties  which  unavoidably  sur- 
round a  religion  so  deep  and  manifold  in  philosophy, 
and  occupying  so  vast  a  place  in  the  history  of  na- 
tions. It  would  be  wonderful  indeed,  if  a  teaching 
which  embraces  all  spiritual  and  moral  truth,  from 
the  highest  to  the  minutest,  should  present  no  mys- 
teries or  apparent  inconsistencies ;  wonderful,  if  in 
the  lapse  of  eighteen  hundred  years,  and  in  the  range 
of  three-fourths  of  the  globe,  and  in  the  profession 
of  thousands  of  millions  of  souls,  it  had  not  afforded 
innumerable  points  of  plausible  attack;  wonderful, 
if  it  could  assail  the  pride  and  sensuality  which  are 
common  to  the  whole  race,  without  rousing  the 
hatred,  malice,  jealousy,  and  obstinate  opposition  of 
the  natural  man  ;  wonderful,  if  it  could  be  the  object 
of  the  jealous  and  unwearied  scrutiny  of  ten  thou- 
sand adversaries,  of  the  coalition  of  wit  and  wisdom, 
of  minds  acute,  far-seeing,  comprehensive,  original, 
and  possessed  of  the  deepest  and  most  varied 
knowledge,  yet  without  some  sort  of  case  being 
made  out  against  it ;  and  wonderful,  moreover,  if 
the  vast  multitude  of  objections,  great  and  small, 
resulting  from  its  exposure  to  circumstances  such  as 
these,  acting  on  the  timidity,  scrupulousness,  inex- 
perience, intellectual  fastidiousness,  love  of  the 
world,  or  self-dependence  of  individuals,  had  not 
been  sufficient  to  keep  many  a  one  from  the  Church, 
who  had,  in  spite  of  them,  good  and  satisfactory  rea- 
sons for  joining  her  communion.  Here  is  the  plain 
reason  why  so  many  are  brought  near  the  Church, 
and  go  back,  or  are  so  slow  in  submitting  to  her. 

Now,  as  has  been  implied  above,  where  there  is 
detachment  from  the  world,  a  keen  apprehension  of 
the  unseen,   and  a  simple   determination  to  do  the 


IX 

divine  will,  such  difficulties  will  not  commonly  avail, 
if  men  have  had  sufficient  opportunity  of  acquainting 
themselves  with  the  Notes  or  Evidences  of  the 
Church.  In  matter  of  fact  they  do  net  avail,  as  we 
see  daily,  to  deter  those  whose  hearts  are  right,  or 
whose  minds  are  incapable  of  extended  investiga- 
tions, from  recognizing  the  Church's  Notes  and  acting 
upon  them.  They  do  not  avail  with  the  poor,  tre 
uneducated,  the  simple-minded,  the  resolute,  and  the 
fervent;  but  they  are  formidable,  when  there  are 
motives  in  the  back-ground,  amiable  or  unworthy,  to 
bias  their  will.  Every  one  is  obliged,  by  the  law  of 
his  nature,  to  act  by  reason;  yet  no  onelik*s  to 
make  a  great  sacrifice  unnecessarily  ;  such  difficul- 
ties, then,  just  avail  to  turn  the  scale,  and  to  detain 
men  in  Protestantism,  who  are  open  to  the  influence 
of  tenderness  towards  friends,  reliance  on  superiors, 
fondness  for  their  position,  dread  of  present  incon- 
venience, indolence,  love  of  independence,  fear  of  the 
future,  regard-  to  reputation,  desire  of  consistency, 
attachment  to  cherished  notions,  pride  of  reason,  or 
reluctance  to  go  to  school  again.  No  one  likes  to 
take  an  awful  step,  all  by  himself,  without  feeling 
sure  be  is  right.  ;  no  one  likes  to  remain  long  in  doubt 
whether  he  should  take  it  or  not;  he  wishes  to  be 
settled,  and  he  readily,  catches  at  objections,  or 
listens  to  dissuasives,  which  allow  of  his  giving  over 
t'.e  inquiry,  or  postponing  it  sine  die.  Yet  those 
very  same  persons  who  would  willingly  hide  the 
truth  from  their  eyes  by  objections  and  difficulties, 
nevertheless,  if  actually  forced  to  look  it  in  the  ta<e. 
^-nl  brought,  under  the  direct  power  of  the  Catholic 
;  rg'iments,  would  often  have  strength  and  courage 
enough   to   take  the   dreaded  step,    and  would  find 


themselves,  almost  before  they  knew  what  they  had 
done,  in  the  haven  of  peace. 

These  were  some  of  the  reasons  for  the  particular 
line  of  argument  which  the  Author  has  selected ; 
and  in  what  he  has  said  in  explanation,  he  must  not 
be  supposed  to  forget  that  faith  is  the  result  of  the 
will,  not  of  a  process  of  reasoning,  and  that  con- 
version is  a  simple  work  of  divine  grace.  He  aims 
at  nothing  more  than  to  remove  impediments  to  the 
due  action  of  the  conscience,  by  removing  those 
perplexities  in  the  proof,  which  keep  the  intellect 
from  being  touched  by  its  cogency,  and  give  the 
heart  an  excuse  for  trifling  with  it.  The  absence  of 
temptation  or  of  other  moral  disadvantage,  though 
not  the  direct  cause  of  virtuous  conduct,  still  is  a 
great  help  towards  it ;  and,  in  like  manner,  to  clear 
away  from  the  path  of  an  inquirer  objections  to 
Catholic  truth,  is  to  subserve  his  conversion  by 
Banking  way  for  the  due  and  efficacious  operation  of 
divine  grace.  R  ligious  persons  indeed  do  what  is 
right  in  spite  of  temptation  ;  persons  of  sensitive 
and  fervent  minds  go  on  to  believe  in  spite  of  diffi- 
culty ;  but  where  the  desire  of  truth  is  languid,  and 
the  religious  purpose  weak,  such  difficulty  suffices  to 
prevent  conviction,  and  faith  will  not  be  created  in 
the  mind  though  there  are  abundant  reasons  for  its 
creation.  In  these  circumstances  it  is  quite  as  much 
an  act  of  charity  to  attempt  the  removal  of  such 
objections  to  the  truth,  as,  without  excusing,  are 
made  the  excuse  for  unbelief,  as  to  remove  the  oc- 
casion of  sin  in  any  other  department  of  duty. 

It  is  plain,  he  is  rather  describing  what  his  Lee-* 
tures  were  intended  to  be,  than  what  they  ha^e 
turned  out.     He  found  it  impossible  to  fulfil  what 


XI 

he  contemplated  within  the  limits  imposed  upon  him 
by  the  circumstances  under  which  they  were  written. 
The  very  first  objection  which  he  took  od  starting, 
the  alleged  connexion  of  the  Movement  of  1833 
with  the  National  Church,  has  afforded  matter  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  course ;  and,  before  he  had 
well  finished  the  discussion  of  it,  it  was  getting  time 
to  think  of  concluding,  and  that,  in  any  way  which 
wouid  give  a  character  of  completeness  to  the  whole. 
Else,  after  the  seventh  Lecture,  it  had  been  his  in- 
tention to  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  the  alleged 
claim  of  the  National  Church  on  the  allegiance  of 
its  members ;  of  the  alleged  duty  of  our  remaining 
in  the  communion  in  which  we  were  born ;  of  the 
alleged  danger  of  trusting  to  reason ;  of  the  alleged 
right  of  the  National  Church  to  forbid  doubt  about 
its  claims ;  of  the  alleged  uncertainty  which  neces- 
sarily attends  the  claims  of  any  religion  whatever ; 
of  the  tests  of  certainty ;  of  the  relation  of  faith  to 
reason ;  of  the  legitimate  force  of  objections ;  and 
of  the  matter  of  Catholic  evidence.  He  is  ashamed 
to  continue  the  list  further,  lest  he  should  seem  to 
have  been  contemplating  what  was  evidently  im- 
practicable ;  all  he  can  say  in  extenuation  is,  that  he 
never  aimed  at  going  more  fully  into  any  of  the 
subjects  of  which  he  was  to  treat,  than  he  has  done 
in  the  sketches  which  he  now  presents  to  the  reader. 
Lastly,  he  had  proposed  to  end  his  course  with  a 
notice  of  the  objections  made  by  Protestants  to 
particular  doctrines,  as  Purgatory,  Intercession  of 
Saints,  and  the  like. 

Incomplete  however  as  the  Lectures  may  be  with 
reference  to  the  idea  with  which  they  were  com- 
menced, or  compared  with  what  might  be  said  upon 
each  subject  successively  treated,  of  course  he  makes 


Xll 

DO  apology  for  the  actual  matter  of  t^em ;  else  he 
should  not  have  delivered  or  published  them.  It 
has  not  been  his  practice  to  engage  in  controversy 
with  those  who  have  felt  it  their  duty  to  criticise 
what  at  any  time  he  has  written;  but  that  will  not 
preclude  him,  under  present  circumstances,  from 
elucidating  what  is  deficient  in  them  by  further  ob- 
servations, should  questions  be  asked  which,  either 
from  the  quarter  whence  they  proceed,  or  f'r<»m  their 
intrinsic  weight,  have,  according  to  bis  judgment,  a 
claim  upon  his  attention. 

Birmingham, 
In  fest.  S.  Bonaventurae, 
1850. 


LECTURE  I. 


ON   THE  RELATION    OF   THE    NATIONAL   CHURCH  TO   THE 
NATION. 

There  are  those,  my  brethren,  who  may  think  it 
strange,  and  even  shocking,  that,  at  this  moment, 
when  the  liberalism  of  the  age,  after  many  previous 
attempts,  is  apparently  at  length  about  to  get  pos- 
session of  the  Church  and  Universities  of  the  na- 
tion, any  one  lik e  myself,  who  is  a  zealous  upholder 
of  the  dogmati:  principle  in  all  its  bearings,  should 
be  doing  what  little  in  him  lies  to  weaken,  even  in- 
directly, institutions,  which,  with  whatever  short- 
comings or  errors,  are  the  only  political  bulwarks  of 
that  principle  left  to  us  by  the  changes  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  For  what  is  it  to  help  forward 
members  of  the  Established  Church  towards  Catho- 
licism, as  I  propose  to  do  in  these  Lectures,  but,  so 
far,  to  co  operate  with  a  levelling  party,  who  are  the 
enemies  of  God,  and  truth,  and  virtue  ?  The  Insti- 
tutions in  question,  it  may  be  said,  uphold  what  is 
1 


right  and  what  is  holy  as  far  as  they  go,  and,  more- 
over, the  duty  of  upholding  it ;  they  do  not  in  their 
genuine  workings  harm  the  Church ;  they  do  but 
oppose  themselves  to  dissent,  freethinking,  infidelity, 
and  lawlessness.  They  are  her  natural,  however 
covert,  allies  ;  they  are  the  faithful  nurses  and  con- 
servators of  her  spirit ;  they  are  glad,  and  proud,  as 
far  as  they  are  allowed  to  do  so,  to  throw  her  mantle 
over  them,  and  they  do  her  homage  by  attempting  a 
mimic  Catholicism.  They  have  preserved  through 
bad  times  our  old  churches,  our  forms,  our  rites,  our 
customs,  in  a  measure  our  Creed ;  they  are  taunted 
by  our  enemies  as  Catholics  or  Papists ;  and  many 
of  those  who  are  submitted  to  their  teaching,  look 
wistfully  to  us,  in  their  forlorn  struggle  with  those 
enemies,  for  encouragement  and  sympathy.  Cer- 
tainly, reviewing  the  history  of  the  last  three  cen- 
turies, we  cannot  deny  that  those  Institutions  have 
uniformly  repressed  the  extravagance,  and  diluted 
the  virulence,  of  Protestantism.  To  the  divines,  to 
whom  they  have  given  birth,  our  country  is  indebted 
for  apologies  for  various  of  the  great  doctrines  of 
the  faith  :  to  Bull  for  a  Defence  of  the  Creed  of 
Nicsea,  nay,  in  a  measure,  of  the  true  doctrine  of 
justification,  such  as  the  most  accomplished  Catholic 
theologians  of  this  day,  as  well  as  of  his  own,  fen  at 
with  great  consideration  ;  to  Pearson  for  a  powerful 
argument  in  behalf  of  the  Apostolical  origin  if 
Episcopacy;  to  Wall  for  a  proof  of  the  primitive 


use  of  Infant  Baptism  ;  to  Hooker  for  a  vindication 
of  the  great  principle  of  religious  order  and  worship  ; 
to  Butler  for  a  profound  investigation  into  the  con- 
nexion of  natural  with  revealed  religion ;  to  Paley 
and  others  for  a  series  of  elaborate  evidences  of  the 
divinity  of  Christianity.  It  is  cruel,  it  is  impolitic 
to  cast  off,  if  not  altogether  friends,  yet  at  least  those 
who  are  not  our  worst  foes  ;  nor  can  we  afford  to  do 
so.  If  they  usurp  our  name,  yet  they  proclaim  it  in 
the  ears  of  heretics  all  about ;  they  have  kept  much 
error  out  of  the  country,  if  they  have  let  much  in ; 
and  if  Platonism,  though  false,  is  more  honorable 
*  than  the  philosophy  of  the  academy  or  of  the  gar- 
den, by  the  same  rule  surely,  we  ought,  compara- 
tively with  other  sects,  to  give  our  countenance  to 
the  Anglican  Church,  to  compassionate  her  in  her 
hour  of  peril,  "  and  spare  the  meek  usurper's  hoary 
head." 

Well,  and  I  do  not  know  what  natural  inducement 
there  is  to  urge  me  to  be  harsh  with  her  in  this  her 
hour :  I  have  only  pleasant  associations  of  those 
many  years  when  I  was  within  her  pale  ;  I  have  no 
theory  to  put  forward,  nor  position  to  maintain  ;  and 
I  am  come  to  a  time  of  life,  when  men  desire  to  be 
quiet  and  at  peace  ;— moreover,  I  am  in  a  communion 
which  satisfies  its  members,  and  draws  them  into 
itself,  and,  by  the  objects  which  it  presents  to  faith, 
and  the  influences  which  it  exerts  over  the  heart, 
leads  them  to  forget   tiie  external  world,  and  look 


forward  more  steadily  to  the  future.  No,  my  dear 
brethren,  there  is  hut  one  thing  forces  me  to  speak, 
— and  it  is  my  intimate  sense  that  the  Catholic 
Church  is  the  one  ark  of  salvation,  and  my  love  for 
your  souls ;  it  is  my  fear  lest  you  ought  to  submit 
yourselves  to  her,  and  do  not ;  my  fear  lest  I  may 
perchance  be  able  to  persuade  you,  and  n  >t  use  my 
talent.  It  will  be  a  miserable  thing  for  you  and  for 
me,  if  I  have  been  instrumental  in  bringing  you  but 
half  way,  if  I  have  co-operated  in  removing  your 
invincible  ignorance,  but  am  able  to  do  no  more. 
It  is  this  keen  feeling  that  my  life  is  wearing  away, 
which  overcomes  the  lassitude  which  possesses  me, 
which  scatters  the  excuses  which  I  might  plausibly 
urge  to  myself  for  not  meddling  with  what  I  have 
left  for  ever,  which  subdues  the  recollections  of  past 
times,  and  which  makes  me  do  my  best,  with  what- 
ever success,  to  bring  you  ro  land  from  off  your 
wreck,  who  have  thrown  yourselves  from  it  upon  the 
waves,  or  are  clinging  to  its  rigging,  or  are  sitting  in 
heaviness  and  despair  upon  its  side.  For  this  is  the 
truth  :  the  Establishment,  whatever  it  be  in  the  eyes 
of  men,  whatever  its  temporal  greatness  and  its  secu- 
lar prospects,  in  the  eyes  of  faith  is  a  mere  wreck. 
We  must  not  indulge  our  imagination,  we  must  not 
droam  :  we  must  look  at  things  as  they  are  ;  we  must 
not  confound  the  past  with  the  present,  or  what  is 
substantive  with  what  is  the  accident  of  a  period. 
Ptidding;  our  minds  of  these  illusions,  we  shall  see 


that  the  Established  Church  has  no  claims  whatever 
on  us,  whether  in  memory  or  in  hope ;  that  they 
only  have  claims  upon  our  commiseration  and  our 
charity  whom  she  holds  in  bondage,  separated  from 
that  faith  and  that  Church  in  which  alone  is  salva- 
tion. If  I  can  do  aught  towards  breaking  their 
chains,  and  bringing  them  into  the  truth,  it  will  be  an 
act  of  love  towards  their  souls,  and  of  piety  towards 
God. 

I  have  said,  we  must  not  indulge  our  imagination 
in  the  view  we  take  of  the  National  Establishment. 
If  we  dress  it  up  in  an  ideal  form  as  if  it  were  some- 
thing real,  with  an  independent  and  a  continuous 
existence,  and  a  proper  history,  as  if  it  were  in  deed 
and  not  only  in  name  a  Church,  then  indeed  we  may 
feel  interest  in  it,  and  reverence  towards  it,  and  affec- 
tion for  it,  as  men  have  fallen  in  love  with  pictures, 
or  knights  in  romance  do  battle  for  high  dames 
whom  they  have  never  seen.  Thus  it  is  that  stu- 
dents of  the  Fathers,  antiquarians,  and  poets,  begin 
by  assuming  that  the  body  to  which  they  belong  is 
that  of  which  they  read  in  time  past,  and  then  pro- 
ceed to  decorate  it  with  that  majesty  and  beauty  of 
which  history  tells,  or  which  their  genius  creates. 
Nor  is  it  an  easy  process  or  a  light  effort  by  which 
their  minds  are  disabused  of  this  error.  It  is  an 
error  for  many  reasons  too  dear  to  them  to  be  readily 
relinquished.  But  at  length,  either  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstances or  some  unexpected  accident  dissipates 


6 

it ;  and,  as  in  fairy  tales,  the  magic  castle  vanishes 
when  the  spell  is  broken,  and  nothing  is  seen  but  the 
wild  heath,  the  barren  rock,  and  the  forlorn  sheep- 
walk  :  so  is  it  with  us  as  regards  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, when  we  look  in  amazement  on  that  we  thought 
so  unearthly,  and  find  so  common-place  or  worthless. 
Then  we  perceive  that  aforetime  we  have  not  been 
guided  by  reason ;  but  biassed  by  education,  and 
swayed  by  affection.  We  see  in  the  English  Church, 
I  will  not  merely  say  no  descent  from  the  first  ages, 
and  no  relationship  to  the  Church  in  other  lands, 
but  we  see  no  body  politic  of  any  kind;  we  see 
nothing  more  or  less  than  an  establishment,  a  depart- 
ment of  government,  or  a  function  or  operation  of 
the  state, — without  a  substance, — a  mere  collection 
of  officials,  depending  on  and  living  in  the  supreme 
civil  power.  Its  unity  and  personality  are  gone,  and 
with  them  its  power  of  exciting  feelings  of  any  kind. 
It  is  easier  to  love  or  hate  an  abstraction,  than  so 
tangible  a  frame- work  or  machinery.  We  regard  it 
neither  with  anger,  nor  with  aversion,  nor  with  con- 
tempt, any  more  than  with  respect  or  interest.  It 
is  but  one  aspect  of  the  state,  or  mode  of  civil 
governance ;  it  is  responsible  for  nothing ;  it  can 
appropriate  neither  praise  nor  blame ;  but,  whatever 
feeling  ?t  raises,  is,  by  the  nature  of  the  case,  to  be 
referred  on  to  the  Supreme  Power  whom  it  repre- 
sents, and  whose  will  is  its  breath.  And  hence  it 
has  no  identity  of  existence  in  distinct  periods,  unless 


the  present  Legislature  or  Court  can  affect  to  be  tl  e 
offspring  and  disciple  of  its  predecessor.  Nor  c;  n 
it  in  consequence  be  said  to  have  any  antecedents, 
or  any  future ;  or  to  live,  except  in  the  passing 
moment.  As  a  thing  without  a  soul,  it  does  not 
contemplate  itself,  define  its  intrinsic  constitution,  or 
ascertain  its  position.  It  has  no  traditions;  it. can- 
not be  said  to  think  ;  it  does  not  know  what  it  holds, 
and  what  it  does  not  ;*  it  is  not  even  conscious  of 
its  own  existence.  It  has  no  love  for  its  members, 
or  what  are  sometimes  called  its  children,  nor  any 
instinct  whatever,  unless  attachment  to  its  master, 
or  love  of  its  place,  may  be  so  called.  Its  fruits,  as 
far  as  they  are  good,  are  to  be  made  much  of  while 
they  are  present ;  for  they  are  transient,  and  without 
succession ;  its  former  champions  of  orthodoxy  are 
no  earnest  of  orthodoxy  now ;  they  died,  and  there 
was   no  reason   why   they   should   be    reproduced. 


*  The  fact  is  strikingly  brought  out  in  Archbishop  Sumner's 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Maskell.  "  You  ask  me,"  he  says, 
•*  whether  you  are  to  conclude  that  you  ought  not  to  teach,  and 
have  not  authority  of  the  Church  to  teach  any  of  the  doctrines 
spoken  of  in  your  five  former  questions,  in  the  dogmatical  terms 
there  stated?"  To  which  I  reply,  "  Are  they  contained  in  the 
Word  cf  God?  St.  Paul  says,  '  Preach  the  word.'  .... 
Now,  whether  the  doctrines  concerning  which  vou  inquire  are 
contained  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  can  be  proved  thereby,  you 
have  the  same  means  of  discovering  as  myself,  and  I  have  no 
special  authority  to  declare."  The  Archbishop  at  least  would 
quite  allow  what  I  have  said  in  the  text,  even  though  he  might 
express  himself  differently. 


8 

Bishop  is  not  like  Bishop,  more  than  king  is  like 
king,  or  ministry  like  ministry ;  its  Prayer  Book  is 
an  act  of  Parliament  of  two  centuries  ago,  and  its 
cathedrals  and  its  chapter-houses  are.  th :  spoi  of 
Catholicism. 

I  have  said  all  this,  my  brethren,  not  in  declama- 
tion, but  to  bring  out  clearly  to  you,  why  I  cannot 
feel  interest  of  any  Kind  in  the  National  Church,  nor 
put  any  trust  in  it  at  all,  from  its  past  history,  as 
being,  in  however  narrow  a  sense,  a  guardian  of  or- 
thodoxy. It  is  as  little  bound  by  what  it  said  or  did 
formerly,  as  this  morning's  newspaper  by  its  former 
numbers,  except  as  it  is  bound  by  the  Law ;  and 
while  it  is  upheld  by  the  Law,  it  will  not  be  weak- 
ened by  the  'subtraction  of  individuals,  nor  fortified 
by  their  continuance.  Its  life  is  an  act  of  Parlia- 
ment. It  will  not  be  able  to  resist  the  Arian,  Sabel- 
lian  or  Unitarian  heresies  now,  because  Bull  or 
Waterland  resisted  them  a  century  or  two  before ; 
nor  will  it  be  unable  to  resist  them,  though  its  more 
orthodox  theologians  were  presently  to  leave  it.  It 
will  be  able  to  resist  them  while  the  State  gives  tie 
word ;  it  would  be  unable,  when  the  State  forbids 
it.  Elizabeth  boasted  that  she  "  tuned  its  pulpif  s  ;" 
Charles  forbade  discussions  on  predestination ; 
George,  on  the  Holy  Trinity ;  Victoria  allows  dif- 
ferences on  Holy  Baptism.  While  the  nation  wishes 
an  Establishment,  it  will  remain,  whatever  individuals 
are  for  it  or  against  it ;  and  that  which  determines 


9 

its  existence,  will  determine  its  voice.  Of  course 
the  piesence  or  departure  of  individuals  will  be  one 
oat  of  various  disturbing  causes,  which  may  delay  or 
accelerate  by  a  certain  number  of  years  a  change  in 
its  teaching :  but,  after  all,  the  change  depends  on 
events  broader  and  deeper  than  these ;  it  depends 
on  changes  in  the  nation.  As  the'nation  changes  its 
political,  so  may  it  change  its  religious  views ;  the 
causes  which  carried  the  Reform  Bill  and  Free 
Trade  may  make  short  work  with  orthodoxy. 

The  most  simple  proof  of  the  truth  of  this  asser- 
tion will  be  found  in  considering  what  and  how  much 
has  been  hitherto  done  by  the  ecclesiastical  move- 
ment of  1833,  towards  heightening  the  tone  of  the 
Established  Church — by  a  movement  extending  over 
seventeen  years  and  more,  and  carried  on  with  great 
energy,  (and  as  far  as  concerns  the  conversion  of 
individuals)  with  surprising  success.  Opinions 
which,  twenty  years  ago,  were  not  held  by  any  but 
Catholics,  or  at  most  only  in  isolated  portions  by 
isolated  persons,  are  now  the  profession  of  thousands. 
Such  success  ought  to  have  acted  on  the  Establish- 
ment itself;  has  it  done  so  ?  or  rather,  is  not  that 
success  simply  and  entirely  in  expectation  and  in 
hope,  as  the  conversion  f  heathen  nations  by  the 
various  Evangelical  societies  ?  The  Fathers  have 
catholicized  the  Protestant  Church  at  home,  pretty 
much  as  the  Bible  has  evangelized  the  Mahometan 
or  Hindoo  religions  abroad.     There  have  been  re- 


10 

curring  vaticinations  and  promises  of  good;  but 
little  or  no  actual  fulfilment.  Look  back  year  after 
year,  count  up  the  exploits  of  the  movement  party, 
and  consider  whether  it  has  had  any  effect  at  all  on 
the  religious  judgment  of  the  nation,  as  represented 
by  the  Establishment.  The  more  clear  and  striking 
is  the  growth  of  its  adherents  and  well-wishers,  the 
more  pregnant  a  fact  is  it,  that  the  Establishment 
has  steadily  gone  on  its  own  way,  eating,  drinking, 
sleeping,  and  working,  fulfilling  its  nature  and  its 
destiny,  as  if  that  movement  had  not  been ;  or  at 
least  with  no  greater  consciousness  of  its  presence, 
than  any  internal  disarrangement  or  disorder  inflicts 
on  a  man  who  has  a  work  to  do,  and  is  busy  at  it. 
The  movement  has  formed  but  a  party  within  its 
pale,  and  the  Church  of  the  nation  has  pursued  the 
nation's  objects,  and  executed  the  nation's  will,  in 
spite  of  it.  The  movement  could  not  prevent  the 
Ecclesiastical  commission,  nor  the  Episcopal  mis- 
management of  it.  Its  zeal,  principle,  and  clearness 
of  view,  backed  by  a  union  of  parties,  di  1  not  pre- 
vent  the  royal  appointment  of  a  theological  Profes- 
sor, whose  sentiments  were  the  expression  of  the 
national  idea  of  religion.  Nor  did  its  protest  even 
succeed  in  preventing  his  subsequent  elevation  to 
the  Episcopal  bench.  Nor  did  it  succeed  in  pre- 
venting the  establishment  of  a  sort  of  Anglo  Pru>sian, 
half-episcopal,  half- Lutheran  see  at  Jerusalem  ;  nor 
the  selection  of  two  individuals  of  heretical  opinions 


11 

to  fill  it  in  succession.  Nor  did  it  prevent  the  in* 
trusion  of  the  Establishment  on  the  Maltese  terri* 
tory ;  nor  has  it  prevented  the  systematic  promotion 
at  home  of  men  heterodox,  or  fiercely  latitudinarian, 
in  their*  religious  views,  or  professedly  ignorant  of 
theology,  and  glorying  in  their  ignorance.  Nor  did 
the  movement  prevent  the  promotion  of  Bishops  and 
others  who  deny  or  explain  away  the  grace  of  Bap- 
tism. Nor  has  it  hindered  the  two  Archbishops  of 
England  concurring  in  the  royal  decision  that  with- 
in the  national  communion  baptismal  regeneration 
is  an  open  question,  It  has  not  heightened  the 
theology  of  the  Universities  or  of  the  Christian 
Knowledge  Society,  nor  afforded  any  defence  in  its 
hour  of  need  to  the  National  Society  for  Education. 
What  has  it  done  for  the  cause  it  undertook?  It 
has  preserved  the  Universities  to  the  Established 
Church  for  fifteen  years  ;  perhaps  it  prevented  cer- 
tain alterations  in  the  Prayer  Book  ;  it  has  secured 
at  Oxford  the  continuance  of  the  Oath  of  Supremacy 
against  Catholics  for  a  like  period ;  it  has  hindered 
the  promotion  of  high-minded  liberals,  like  the  late 
Br.  Arnold,  at  the  price  of  the  advancement  of 
gecond-rafce  men  who  have  shared  his  opinions.  It 
has  built  Churches  and  Colleges,  and  endowed  sees> 
of  which  its  enemies  in  the  Establishment  have 
gladly  taken  or  are  taking  possession  j  it  has  found* 
ed  sisterhoods  or  elicited  confessions,  the  fruits  of 
which  art  y§«  to  b©  seen.    On  the  other  hand  it  ha? 


12 

given  a  hundred  educated  men  to  the  Catholic 
Church;  vet  the  huge  creature,  from  which  they 
went  forth,  showed  no  consciousness  of  its  loss,  but 
shook  itself',  and  went  about  its  work  as  of  old  time, 
— as  all  parties,  even  the  associates  they  had  left, 
united,  and  even  gloried,  in  witnessing.  And  lastly, 
the  present  momentous  event,  to  which  1  have  al- 
ready alluded,  which  is  creating  such  disturbance  in 
the  country,  has  happened  altogether  independent  of 
the  movement,  and  is  unaffected  by  it.  Those  per- 
sons who  went  forward  to  Catholicism  have  not 
caused  it ;  those  who  have  stayed  neither  could  pre- 
vent it,  nor  can  remedy  it.  It  relates  to  a  question 
previous  to  any  of  those  doctrines  which  it  has  been 
the  main  object  of  the  movement  to  maintain.  It  is 
caused,  rather  it  is  willed,  by  the  national  mind ; 
and,  till  the  grace  of  God  touches  and  converts  that 
mind,  it  will  remain  a  fact  done  and  over,  a  precedent 
and  a  principle  in  the  Establishment. 

Such  is  the  true  state  of  the  case :  no  one  can 
exaggerate  the  vis  inertia,  the  life,  of  a  national  es- 
tablishment, of  whatever  kind  ;  it  is,  in  other  words, 
the  strength  of  the  world ;  nothing  is  stronger  than 
the  world,  except  God  and  the  devil ;  and  the  evil 
spirit  may,  if  God  so  allow,  destroy  what  he  has 
hitherto  used,  in  order  to  bring  in  a  more  awful 
form  of  heresy  and  unbelief.  The  Eternal  God  too, 
at  His  merciful  pleasure,  may  fight  with  it,  and 
humble  and  subdue  it,  as  He  has  done  of  old  time ; 


13 

and  in  such  cases  His  Holy  Church  is  the  instrument 
of  His  purposes.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  wherever  she  is  found,  and  it  is  her  gift,  to 
confront,  to  encounter,  and  to  beat  back  the  spirit 
of  the  age.  This  has  been  especially  felt  by  those 
who  began,  and  those  who  continued,  the  movement 
in  the  Establishment.  They  keenlv  felt  this  truth ; 
they  acted  upon  it ;  and  they  failed,  because  they 
mistook  an  Establishment  for  the  Church,  because 
they  fancied  a  work  of  man  the  work  of  G-od.  The 
Church  alone  is  immortal  and  unalterable ;  but  time 
and  chance,  which  are  the  instruments  of  man's 
creations,  are  the  instruments  also  of  their  modifi- 
cation and  their  change. 

This  is  the  true  explanation  of  what  is  going  on 
before  our  eyes,  as  seen  whether  in  the  decision  of 
the  Privy  Council,  or  in  the  respective  conduct  of 
the  two  parties  in  the  Establishment  with  relation  to 
it.  It  may  seem  strange,  at  first  sight,  that  the 
Evangelican  section  should  presume  so  boldly  to 
contravene  the  distinct  and  categorical  teaching  of 
the  national  formularies  on  the  subject  of  baptism  ; 
strange,  till  it  is  understood  that  the  true  interpreter 
of  their  sense  is  the  nation  itself,  and  that  that  sec- 
tion in  the  Establishment  speaks  with  the  confidence 
of  men  who  know  that  they  have  the  nation  on  their 
side.  Let  me  here  refer  to  the  just  and  manly  ad- 
missions on  this  subject  of  a  high-principled  writer, 
which  have  lately  been  given  to  the  public : — 


14 

8t  There  is"  a  "  consideration,"  he  says,  "  which, 
for  some  time,  has  pressed  heavily  and  painfully 
upon  me.  As  a  fact,  the  Evangelical  party  plainly, 
openly,  and  fully  declare  their  opinions  upon  the 
doctrines  which  they  contend  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land holds  ;  they  tell  their  people  continually,  what 
they  ought,  as  a  matter  of  duty  towards  God  and 
towards  themselves,  both  to  believe  and  practised 
Can  it  be  pretended  that  we,  as  a  party,  anxious  to 
teach  the  truth,  are  equally  open,  plain,  and  unre- 
served ?  .  .  .  And  it  is  not  to  be  alleged,  that  only 
the  less  important  duties  and  doctrines  are  so  re- 
served :  as  if  it  would  be  an  easy  thing  to  distin- 
guish and  draw  a  line  of  division  between  them.  .  .  * 
We  do  reserve  vital  and  essential  truths  ;  we  often 
hesitate  and  fear  to  teach  our  people  many  duties, 
not  all  necessary,  perhaps,  in  every  case  or  to  every 
person,  but  eminently  practical,  and  sure  to  increase 
the  growth  of  the  inner,  spiritual  life ;  we  differ,  in 
short,  as  widely  from  the  Evangelical  party  in  the 
manner  and  openness,  as  in  the  matter  and  details 
of  our  doctrine.  .  .  .  All  this  seems  to  me  to  be, 
day  by  day  and  hour  by  hour,  more  and  more  hard 
to  be  reconciled  with  the  real  spirit,  mind,  and  pur* 
pose  of  the  English  Reformation,  and  of  the  modern 
English  Church,  shown  by  the  experience  of  three 
hundred  years  .  .  .  People  often  say,  it  is  wrong 
to  use  such  terras  as  *  the  spirit  of  the  Reformed 
English  Church ;'  or  « its  intention*5  e  purpose/  and 


15 

the  like.  And  is  it  really  so  ?  was  the  Reformation 
nothing  ?  did  it  effect  nothing,  change  nothing,  re* 
move  nothing?  ....  No  doubt  the  Reformed 
Church  of  England  claims  to  be  a  portion  of  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church  ;  and  it  has  been  common  for 
many  of  our  own  opinions,  to  add  also  the  assertion, 
that  she  rejects  and  condemns,  as  being  out  of  the 
Church  Catholic,  the  reformed  Churches  abroad, 
Lutheran,  Genevan,  and  others,  together  with  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland,  or  the  Dissenters  at  home.  Upon 
our  principles,  nay,  on  any  consistent  Church  prin- 
ciple at  all,  such  a  corollary  must  follow.  But  there 
is  a  strangeness  in  it;  it  commends  itself  perhaps  to 
our  intellect,  but  not  to  the  eye  or  ear ;  nor,  it  may 
be,  to  the  heart  or  conscience."* 

These  remarks  are  as  true,  as  they  are  candid  ; 
and  it  is,  I  hope,  no  disrespect  to  the  Author,  if5 
taking  them  from  their  context,  I  use  them  for  my 
own  argument,  which  is  not  indeed  divergent,  though 
it  is  distinct  from  his  own.  Whether,  then,  they 
prove  that  the  Evangelical  party  is  as  much  at  home 
in  the  national  Prayer  Book  as  the  Anglican,  I  will 
not  pronounce ;  but  at  least  they  prove  that  that 
party  is  far  more  at  home  in  the  national  Establish- 
ment ;  that  it  is  in  cordial  and  intimate  sympathy 
with  the  Sovereign  Lord  and  Master  of  the  Prayer 
Book,    its   composer   and   interpreter,    the    Nation 

*  Maskell's  Second  Letter,  pp.  57,69. 


16 

itself, — on  the  best  terms  with  Queen,  and  states- 
men, and  practical  men,  and  country  gentlemen, 
and  respectable  tradesmen,  fathers  and  mothers, 
schoolmasters,  churchwardens,  vestries,  public  so- 
cieties, newspapers,  and  their  readers  in  the  lower 
classes.  The  Evangelical  Ministers  of  the  Esta- 
blishment have,  in  comparison  with  their  Anglican 
rivals,  the  spirit  of  the  age  with  them ;  they  are 
congenial  with  the  age ;  they  glide  forward  rapidly 
and  proudly  down  the  stream  ;  and  i.*  is  this  fact, 
and  their  consciousness  of  it,  which  carries  them 
over  all  difficulties.  Jewell  was  triumphant  over 
Harding,  and  Wake  over  Atterbury  or  Leslie,  with 
the  terrors  or  the  bribes  of  a  sovereign  to  back 
them,  and  their  successors  in  this  day  have,  in  like 
manner,  the  strength  of  public  opinion  on  their  side. 
The  letter  of  enactments,  pristine  customs  ancient 
rights,  are  no  match  for  the  momentum  with  which 
they  rush  along  upon  the  flood  of  public  opinion, 
which  makes  every  conclusion  seem  absurd,  and 
every  argument  sophistical,  and  every  maxim  untrue, 
except  such  as  it  recognises  itself. 

How  different  has  it  been  with  the  opposite  party ! 
Confident,  indeed,  and  with  reason,  of  the  truth  of 
its  great  principles,  having  a  perception  and  cer- 
tainty of  its  main  tenets,  which  is  like  the  evidence 
of  sense  compared  with  the  feeble,  flitting,  and  un- 
real views  of  doctrine  held  by  the  Evangelical  body, 
still,  as  to  their  application,  their  adaptation,  their 


17 

combination,  their  development,  it  has  been  misera- 
bly conscious  that  it  has  had  nothing  to  guide  it  but 
its  own  private  and  unaided  judgment.  Dreading 
its  own  interpretation  of  Scripture  and  the  Fathers, 
feeling  its  need  of  an  infallible  guide,  yet  having 
none ;  looking  up  to  its  own  ^Mother,  as  it  called 
her,  and  finding  her  silent,  ambiguous,  unsympa- 
thetic, sullen,  and  even  hostile  to  it;  with  ritual 
mutilated,  sacraments  defective,  precedents  incon- 
sistent, articles  equivocal,  canons  obsolete,  courts 
Protestant,  and  synods  suspended  ;  scouted  by  the 
laity,  scorned  by  men  of  the  world,  hated  and  black- 
ened by  its  opponents ;  and  moreover  at  variance 
with  itself,  hardly  two  of  its  members  taking  up  the 
same  position,  nay,  all  of  them  shifting  their  own 
ground  as  time  went  on,  and  obliged  to  confess  that 
they  were  in  progress ;  is  it  wonderful,  in  the  words 
of  the  pamphlet  already  referred  to,  that  these  men 
have  exhibited  "  a  conduct  and  a  rule  of  religious 
life"  "full  of  shifts,  and  compromises,  and  evasions, 
a  rule  of  life  based  upon  the  acceptance  of  half  one 
doctrine,  all  the  next,  and  none  of  the  third,  upon 
the  belief  entirely  of  another,  but  not  daring  to  say 
so  ?"  After  all,  they  have  not  been  near  so  guilty 
"  of  shifts,  and  compromises,  and  evasions,"  as  the 
national  formularies  themselves ;  but  they  have  had 
none  to  support  them,  or,  if  I  may  use  a  familiar 
word,  to  act  the  bully  for  them  under  the  imputa- 
tion. There  was  no  one  with  confident  air  and  loud 
voice,  to  retort  upon   their  opponents  the  charges 


18 

urged  against  them,  and  no  public  to  applaud,  though 
there  had  been.  Whether  they  looked  above  or 
below,  behind  or  before,  they  found  nothing  indeed 
to  shake  or  blunt  their  faith  in  Christ,  in  His  estab- 
lishment of  a  Church,  in  its  visibility,  continuance, 
catholicity,  and  gifts,  and  in  the  necessity  of  belong- 
ing to  it  they  despised  the  hollowness  of  their  oppo- 
nents, the  inconsequence  of  their  arguments,  the 
shallowness  of  their  views,  their  disrelish  of  princi- 
ple, and  their  carelessness  about  truth,  but  their 
heart  sunk  within  them  under  the  impossibility  of 
their  carrying  on  their  faith  into  practice,  there, 
where  they  found  themselves,  and  of  realising  their 
ideas  in  fact,  and  the  duty  notwithstanding,  as  they 
were  taught  it,  of  making  the  best  of  the  circum- 
stances in  which  they  were  placed.  Such  were  they ; 
I  trust  they  are  so  still :  I  will  not  allow  myself  to 
fancy  that  secret  doubts  on  one  hand,  that  self-will, 
disregard  of  authority,  an  unmanly  disingenuous 
bearing,  and  the  spirit  of  party  on  the  other,  have 
deformed  a  body  of  persons  whom  once  I  loved,  re- 
vered, and  sympathised  with.  I  speak  of  those  many 
persons  whom  I  admired ;  who,  like  the  hero  in  the 
epic,  did  not  want  courage,  but  encouragement ;  who 
looked  out*in  vain  for  the  approbation  of  authority ; 
who  felt  their  own  power,  but  shrank  from  the  omen 
of  evil,  the  hateful  raven,  which  napped  its  wings  over 
them ;   who  seemed  to  say  with  the  poet : 

Non  me  tua  fervida  terrent 

Dicta,  ferox ;  Dii  me  terrent,  et  Jupiter  hostis 


19 

But  their  very  desire  of  realities,  and  their  fear 
of  deceiving  themselves  with  dreams,  was  their  in- 
surmountable difficulty  here.  They  could  not  make 
the  Establishment  what  it  was  not,  and  this  was 
forced  on  them  day  after  day. 

It  is  a  principle,  in  some  sense  acknowledged  by 
Catholic  theologians,  that  the  spirit  of  an  age  mo- 
difies its  inherited  professions.  Moralists  lay  down, 
that  a  law  loses  its  authority  which  the  lawgiver 
knowingly  allows  to  be  infringed  and  put  aside; 
whatever,  then,  be  the  abstract  claims  of  the  Angli- 
can cause,  the  living  community  to  which  they  are 
attached,  has  for  centuries  ignored  and  annulled 
them.  It  was  a  principle  parallel  to  this  which  fur- 
nished one  of  the  reasons  on  which  the  judges  of 
the  Queen's  Bench  the  other  day  acted,  when  they 
refused  to  prohibit  the  execution  of  the  Royal  de- 
cision, in  the  appeal  from  the  Bishop  of  Exeter. 
His  counsel  urged  certain  provisions  in  statutes  of 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  which  had  not  been  dis- 
cussed in  the  pleadings.  "  Were  the  language  of 
25  Henry  VIII.,  c.  9,  obscure  instead  of  clear," 
observed  the  Chief  Justice,  "  we  should  not  be  jus- 
tified in  differing  from  the  construction  put  upon  it 
by  contemporaneous  and  long  continued  usage. 
There  would  be  no  safety  for  property  or  liberty  if 
it  could  be  successfully  contended,  that  all  lawyers 
and  statesmen  have  been  mistaken  for  centuries  as 
to   the  true  meaning  of  the   Act  of  Parliament." 


20 

Whatever  becomes  of  the  general  question,  this  at 
least  is  the  language  of  reason  and  common  sense ; 
as  physical  life  assimilates  to  itself,  or  casts  off, 
whatever  it  encounters,  allowing  no  interference  with 
the  supremacy  of  its  own  principle,  so  is  it  with 
social  and  civil.  When  a  body  politic  grows,  takes 
definite  shape,  and  matures,  it  slights,  though  it  may 
endure,  the  vestiges  and  tokens  of  its  rude  begin- 
nings. It  may  cherish  them  as  curiosities,  but  it 
abjures  them  as  precedents.  They  may  hang  about 
it,  as  the  shrivelled  blossom  about  the  formed  fruit ; 
but  they  are  dead,  and  will  be  sure  to  disappear  as 
soon  as  they  are  felt  to  be  troublesome.  Common 
sense  tells  us  they  do  not  apply  to  things  as  they  are ; 
and,  if  individuals  attempt  to  insist  on  them,  they 
will  but  bring  on  themselves  the  just  imputation  of 
vexatiousness  and  extravagance.  So  it  is  with  the 
Anglican  formularies ;  they  are  but  the  expression 
of  the  national  sentiment,  and  therefore  are  neces- 
sarily modified  by  it.  Did  the  nation  grow  into 
Catholicity,  they  might  easily  be  made  to  assume  a 
Catholic  demeanor;  but  as  it  has  matured  in  its 
Protestantism,  they  must  take,  day  by  day,  a  more 
Evangelical  and  liberal  aspect.  Of  course,  I  am 
not  saying  this  by  way  of  justifying  individuals  in 
professing  and  using  doctrinal  and  devotional  forms 
from  which  they  dissent;  nor  am  I  denying  that 
words  have,  or  at  least  ought  to  have,  a  definite 
meaning  which  must  not  be  explained  away ;  I  am 


21 

merely  stating  what  takes  place  in  matter  of  fact, 
allowably  in  some  cases,  wrongly  in  others,  according 
to  the  strength  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  wording  of 
the  formulary,  and  of  the  diverging  opinion  on  the 
other.  I  say,  that  a  nation's  laws  are  a  nation's 
property,  and  have  their  life  in  the  national  life,  and 
their  interpretation  in  the  nation's  sentiment :  and 
where  that  living  intelligence  does  not  shine  through 
them,  they  become  worthless  and  are  put  aside, 
whether  formally  or  on  an  understanding.  Now 
Protestantism  is,  as  it  has  been  for  centuries,  the 
nation's  religion:  and  since  the  semi-patristical 
Church,  which  was  set  up  for  the  nation  at  the  Re- 
formation, is  the  organ  of  that  religion,  it  must  live 
for  the  nation ;  it  must  hide  its  Catholic  aspirations 
in  folios,  or  in  college  cloisters ;  it  must  call  itself 
Protestant,  when  it  gets  into  the  pulpit ;  it  must  ab- 
jure antiquity ;  for  woe  to  it,  if  it  attempt  to  thrust 
the  wording  of  its  own  documents  in  its  master's 
path,  if  it  rely  on  a  passage  in  its  Visitation  for  the 
Sick,  or  on  an  Article  of  the  Creed,  or  on  the  tone 
of  its  Collects,  or  on  a  catena  of  its  divines,  when 
the  age  has  determined  on  a  theology  more  in  keep- 
ing with  the  progress  o£  knowledge !  The  anti- 
quarian, the  reader  of  history,  the  theologian,  the 
philosopher,  the  Biblical  student  may  make  his  pro- 
test ;  he  may  quote  St.  Austin,  or  appeal  to  the 
canons,  or  argue  from  the  nature  of  the  case ;  but 
la   Reine  h.  vent ;  the   English  people  js  sufficient 


22 

for  itself;  it  wills  to  be  Protestant  and  progressive ; 
and  Fathers,  councils,  schoolmen,  Scriptures,  saints, 
angels,  and  what  is  above  them,  must  give  way. 
What  are  they  to  it  ?  It  thinks,  acts,  and  is  con- 
tented, according  to  its  own  practical,  intelligible, 
shallow  religion ;  and  of  that  religion  its  Bishops 
and  its  divines,  will  they  or  will  they  not,  must  be 
exponents.* 

In  this  way,  I  say,  we  are  to  explain,  but  in  this 
way  most  naturally  and  satisfactorily,  what  otherwise 
would  be  startling,  the  late  Royal  decision  to  which 
I  have  several  times  referred.  The  great  legal  au- 
thorities, on  whose  report  it  was  made,  have  not  only 
pronounced,  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  persons  who 
have  denied  the  grace  of  Baptism,  had  held  the 
highest  preferments  in  the  National  Church,  but  they 
felt  themselves  authorized  actually  to  interpret  its 
ritual  and  its  doctrine,  and  to  report  to  Her  Majesty, 
that  the  dogma  of  baptismal  regeneration  is  not  part 


*  "  It  is  net  the  practice  for  Judges  to  take  up  points  of  their 
own,  and,  without  argument,  to  decide  a  case  upon  them. 
Lord  Eldon  used  to  say,  that  oftentimes  hearing  an  argument 
in  support  of  an  opinion  he  had  so  taken  up,  convinced  him  he 
had  been  wrong— a  great  authqpty  in  favor  of  the  g<  od  sense 
of  the  practice,  which  the  Queen's  Bench  have  disregarded  in 
this  case.  In  the  Hampden  case,  the  whole  practice  of  the 
Court  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  was  set  at  nought  by  Lord 
1  enman.  In  this  case  a  course  has  been  taken  which  has  never 
hitherto  been  followed  in  questions  of  a  mandamus  to  a  railway, 
or  a  criminal  information  against  a  newspaper.  And  both  are 
Church  cases" — Guardian)  May  1, 1850, 


23 

and  parcel  of  the  national  religion.  They  felt  them- 
selves strong  enough,  in  their  position,  to  pronounce 
"  that  the  doctrine  held  by"  the  Protestant  clergy- 
man, who  brought  the  matter  before  them,  "  was 
not  contrary  or  repugnant  to  the  declared  doctrine 
of  the  Church  of  England  as  by  law  established." 
The  question  was  not  whether  it  was  true  or  not,  as 
they  most  justly  remarked,  whether  from  heaven  or 
from  hell ;  they  were  too  sober  to  meddle  with  what 
they  had  no  means  of  determining ;  they  "  abstained 
from  expressing  any  opinion  of  their  own  upon  the 
theological  correctness  or  error  of  the  doctrine" 
propounded :  the  question  was,  not  what  God  had 
said,  but  what  the  English  nation  had  willed  and 
allowed ;  and  though  it  must  be  granted  that  they 
aimed  at  a  critical  examination  of  the  letter  of  the 
documents,  yet  it  must  be  granted,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  their  criticism  was  of  a  very  national 
cast,  and  that  the  national  sentiment  was  of  great 
use  to  them  in  helping  them  to  their  conclusions. 
What  was  it  to  the  nation  or  its  lawyers  whether 
Hooker  used  the  word  "  charity"  or  "  piety,"  in 
the  extract  which  they  adduced  from  his  works,  and 
that  "piety"  gave  one  sense  to  the  passage,  and 
"  charity"  another  ?  Hooker  must  speak  as  the 
existing  nation,  if  he  is  to  be  a  national  authority. 
What  though  the  ritual  categorically  deposes  to  the 
regeneration  of  the  infant  baptized  ?  The  Evan- 
gelical party,  which  had  had  the  nerve  years  before 


24 

to  fix  the  charge  of  dishonesty  on  the  explanations 
of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  put  forth  by  its  oppo- 
nents, could  all  the  while  be  cherishing  in  its  breast 
an  interpretation  of  the  Baptismal  Service,  simply 
contradictory  of  its  most  luminous  declarations. 
Inexplicable  proceeding,  if  it  were  professing  to 
handle  the  document  in  the  letter;  but  not  dis- 
honorable nor  dishonest,  not  hypocritical,  but  natural 
and  obvious,  on  the  condition  or  understanding  that 
the  nation,  which  imposes  the  document,  imposes 
its  sense ;  that  by  the  breath  of  its  mouth  it  had,  as 
a  god,  made  Establishment,  Articles,  Prayer  Book, 
and  all  that  is  therein,  and  could  by  the  breath  of  its 
mouth  as  easily  and  absolutely  unmake  them  again, 
whenever  it  was  disposed ! 

Counsel  then  and  pamphleteers  may  put  forth 
unanswerable  arguments  in  behalf  of  the  Catholic 
interpretation  of  the  Baptismal  Service ;  a  long 
succession  of  Bishops,  an  unbroken  tradition  of  wri- 
ters, may  have  faithfully  and  anxiously  guarded  it. 
In  vain  has  the  Caroline  school  honored  it  by  ritual 
observance ;  in  vain  has  the  restoration  illustrated  it 
by  varied  learning ;  in  vain  did  the  Revolution  retain 
it  as  the  price  for  other  concessions;  in  vain  did  the 
eighteenth  century  use  it  as  a  sort  of  watchword 
against  Wesley ;  in  vain  has  it  been  persuasively 
developed  and  fearlessly  proclaimed  by  the  move- 
ment of  183*3 ;  all  this  is  foreign  to  the  matter  be- 
fore us.    "We  have  not  to  inquire  what  is  the  dogma 


25 

of  a  collegiate,  antiquarian  religion,  but  what,  in  the 
words  of  the  Prime  Minister,  will  give  "  general 
satisfaction;"  what  is  the  religion  of  Britons.  May 
not  the  free-born,  self-dependent,  animal  mind  of 
the  Englishman,  choose  his  religion  for  himself'.'  and 
have  lawyers  more  to  do  than  to  state,  as  a  matter 
of  fact  and  history,  what  that  religion  is,  and  for 
three  centuries  has  been?  are  we  to  obtrude  the 
mysteries  of  an  external,  of  a  dogmatic,  of  a  re- 
vealed system,  on  a  nation  which  intimately  feels 
and  has  established,  that  each  individual  is  to  be  his 
own  judge  of  truth  and  falsehood  in  matters  of  the 
unseen  world  ?  How  is  it  possible  that  the  National 
Church,  forsooth,  should  be  allowed  to  dogmatise  on 
the  point  which  so  immediately  affects  the  nation 
itself?  Why,  half  the  country  is  unbaptized ;  it  is 
difficult  to  say  for  certain  who  are  baptized ;  shall 
the  country  unchristianize  itself?  it  has  not  yet  ad- 
vanced to  indifference  on  such  a  matter.  Shall  it, 
by  a  suicidal  act,  use  its  own  Church  against  itself, 
as  its  instrument  to  cut  itself  off  from  the  hope  of 
another  life  ?  Shall  it  confine  the  Christian  promise 
within  limits,  and  put  restrictions  upon  grace,  when 
it  has  thrown  open  trade,  removed  disabilities, 
abolished  monopolies,  taken  off  agricultural  protec- 
tion, and  enlarged  the  franchise  ? — What  a  day  for 
the  defenders  of  the  dogmas  in  past  times,  if  those 
times  had  anything  to  do  with  the  present !  What  a 
day  for  Bishop  Lavington,  who,  gazing  on  Wesley 
2 


26 

preaching  the  new  birth  at  Exeter,  pronounced  Me- 
thodism as  bad  as  u  Popery !"  What  a  portentous 
day  for  Bampton  Lecturers  and  divinity  Professors ! 
What  a  day  for  Bishop  Mant,  and  Archbishop  Law- 
rence, and  Bishop  Van  Mildert,  and  Archbishop 
Sutton,  and,  as  we  may  trust,  what  a  day  had  it  been 
for  Archbishop  Howley,  taken  away  on  its  very 
dawning!  The  giant  ocean  has  suddenly  swelled 
and  heaved,  and  majestically,  yet  masterfully  snaps 
the  cables  of  the  small  craft  which  lie  upon  its 
bosom,  and  strands  them  upon  the  beach.  Hooker, 
Taylor,  Bull,  Pearson,  Barrow,  Tillotson,  Warbur- 
ton,  and  Home,  names  mighty  in  their  generation, 
are  broken  and  wrecked  before  the  power  of  a  na- 
tion's will.  One  vessel  alone  can  ride  those  waves, 
the  boat  of  Peter,  the  ark  of  God. 

And  now,  my  brethren,  it  is  plain  that  this  doc- 
trine does  not  stand  by  itself;  if  the  grace  of  Bap- 
tism is  not  to  be  taught  dogmatically  in  the  National 
Church,  if  it  be  not  a  heresy  to  deny  it,  if  to  hold  it 
and  not  to  hold  it  be  but  matters  of  opinion,  what 
other  doctrine  stands  within  its  pale  on  a  firmer  or 
more  secure  foundation  ?  The  same  popular  voice 
which  has  explained  away  the  wording  of  the  Office 
for  Baptism,  may  of  course  in  a  moment  dispense 
with  the  Athanasian  Creed  altogether.  Who  can 
doubt,  that,  if  that  symbol  is  not  similarly  dealt 
with  in  course  of  law  in  years  to  come,  it  is  because 
the    present  judgment  will  practically  destroy  its 


force  as  efficaciously,  and  with  less  trouble  to  the 
lawyers''  No  individual  will  dare  to  act  on  views, 
which  he  knows  to  a  certainty  would  be  over,  tiled, 
as  soon  as  they  are  brought  Sic  tore  a  legal  tribunal* 
As  to  the  document  itself  it  will  be  obvious  to  allege 
that  the  detail*  of  the  Athanasian  Creed  were  never 
intended  for  reception  by  National  believers;  all 
that  was  intended,  (as  has  before  now  been  avowed) 
was  to  uphold  a  doctrine  of  a  Trinity,  and  that, 
provided  we  hold  fast  this  "  scriptural  fact,"  it  mat- 
ters not  whether  We  be  Athanasians,  SabelHans, 
Tritheists,  or  Socinians,  or  rather  we  shall  be  neither 
one  nor  the  other  of  them.  Precedents  on  the 
other  hnnd  are  easily  adducible  of  Arian,  Pabellian, 
and  Unitarian  Bishops  and  dignitaries,  and  of  divines 
who  professed  that  Trinitarianism  was  a  mere  matter 
of  op  in  on,  both  in  former  times  and  now.  Indeed 
it  may  with  much  reason  be  maintained,  were  the 
question  before  a  court,  that,  looking  at  the  matter 
historically,  Locke  gave  the  death-blow  to  the  Ca- 
tholic phraseology  on  that  fundamental  doctrine 
among  the  Anglican  clergy ;  and  it  is  surely  unde- 
niable, that  such  points  as  the  Eternal  generation  of 
the  Son,  the  Homousion,  and  the  Hypostatic  Union, 
have  been  silently  discarded  by  the  many,  and  but 
anxiously  and  apologetically  put  forward  by  the  few. 
With  this  existing  disposition  in  the  minds  of  Eng- 
lish churchmen  towards  a  denial  of  the  Catholic 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  I  surely  am  not  rash  in  say 


28 

ing,  that  the  recent  judgment  has  virtually  removed 
it  from  their  authoritative  teaching  altogether. 

Nor  can  eternal  punishment  be  received  as  an 
Anglican  dogma,  with  so  little  for  it  in  the  national 
formularies,  against  the  strong  feeling  of  the  age  ;■ 
nor  original  sin,  in  which  that  fe  Jing  is  countenanced 
and  defended  by  no  less  an  authority  of  past  times 
than  Bishop  Jeremy  Taylor.  And  much  less  the 
inspiration  of  Scripture,  and  the  existence  of  the 
evil  spirit,  doct  ines  which  are  not  mentioned  in  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  at  all.  Yet,  plain  though  this 
be,  at  this  moment  the  Evangelical  members  of  the 
E  tablishment  extol,  the  recent  judgment,  and  are 
transported  at  the  triumph  it  gives  them,  as  if  it 
might  not,  or  would  not,  in  time  to  come,  be  turned 
against  themselves;  as  if,  while  it  dir<  ctly  affected 
the  do  trine  of  baptismal  grace,  it  had  no  be  i ring 
upon  t  ose  of  predomination,  election,  satisfaction, 
justification  and  others,  of  which  they  comider  th  m- 
selv  s  so  especially  jealous.  Poor  victims!  do  you 
dr  am  that  the  spirit  of  the  age  i-  working  for  you, 
or  are  you  secretly  p  epared  to  go  further  than  you' 
avow  ?  Some  of  you  at  least  are  ho i test  enough  to 
be  praising  the  recent  judgment  for  itself,  and  blind 
enough  not  to  see  what  it  involve- ;  and  so  you  con- 
tentedly and  trustfully  throw  yourselves  into  the 
arms  of  the  age.  But  ft  is  "  to-day  for  me,  to- 
morrow for  thee !"  Do  you  really  think  the  age  is 
Stripping  Laud  or  Bull  of  his  authority,  in  order  to 


29 

eet  up  Calvin  or  Baxter  ?  or  with  what  expedient 
are  you  to  elude  a  power,  whose  aid  you  have  already 
invoked  against  your  enemies  "r* 

For  us  Catholics,  my  brethren,  while  we  clearly 
recognize  how  things  are  going,  and  while  we  would 
not  accelerate  the  mareh  of  infidelity  if  we  could 
help  it,  still,  if  we  are  blessed  in  converting  any  of 
you,  we  are  effecting  a  certain  and  substantial  bene- 
fit, which  outweighs  all  points  of  expedience, — the 
salvation  of  your  souls.  I  do  not  undervalue  at  all 
the  advantage  of  institutions,  which,  though  not 
Catholic,  keep  out  evils  worse  than  themselves. 
Some  restraint  is  better  than  none  :  systems,  which 
do  not  inculcate  Diviue  truth,  serve  nevertheless  to 


*  The  Oxford  tutors  are  more  sharp  sighted  I  undemanding 
the  mental  state  ot  the  junior  portion  of  the  University,  they 
see  that  a  decsion  like  that  of  the  Privy  Council's  is  fined  to 
destroy  at  once  what  inle  hold  the  old  Anglican  system  was  on 
them,  and  to  give  entrance  anions  hem  to  a  scepti  ism  n  all 
points  of  religion.  In  a  strong  and  spirited  protest,  they  quote 
agiinsf  the  Archbishop  the  verv  words  he  used  on  another  oc- 
c  ision,  eight  or  time  years  since  Yet  his  evasive  interpretnti<  n 
of  the;  Baptism  d  service  JB not  tJie  fault  o!  the  Archbishop,  hut 
of  ihe  Reformers.  iNojnemheroi  the  stablisbmeni  can  believe 
in  a  system  <•{  theology  of  any  kind,  without  doing  violence  to 
the  formii  ar  es.  Those  only  go  e.isi  y  along  woh  them  and  the 
Prayer  Bo>  k.  who  do  not  think  It  is  remarkable,  the  Arch 
b  shop's  bock  on  Apostolical  Preaching  first  brought  the  preseat 
writer  to  a  belief  in  Baptismal  regeneration  in  821.  He  has 
the  copy  still,  with  h>.s  objections  marked  on  the  siti-,  yiven  him 
for  the  purpose  of  convincing  him  by  a  dignitary  whom  he  has 
ever  loved,  though  he  has  much  differed  from,  Dr.  Hawkms. 


30 

keep  men  from  being  utterly  hardened  against  it, 
when  at  length  it  comes  near  them  ;  they  preserve 
a  certain  number  of  revealed  doctrines  in  the  popu- 
lar mind ;  tbey  familiarise  it  to  Christian  ideas ; 
they  create  religious  associations  ;  and  thus,  remotely 
and  negatively,  they  may  even  be  said  to  prepare 
and  dispose  the  soul  in  a  certain  sense  for  those  in- 
spirations of  grace,  which,  through  the  merits  of 
Christ,  are  freely  given  to  all  men  for  their  salvation, 
all  over  the  earth.  It  is  a  plain  duty  then  not  to  be 
forward  in  destroying  religious  institutions,  even 
though  not  Catholic,  if  we  cannot  replace  them  with 
what  is  better;  but,  from  fear  of  injuring  them,  to 
shrink  from  saving  the  souls  of  the  individuals  who 
live  under  them,  would  be  worldly  wisdom,  treachery 
to  Christ,  and  uncharitableness  to  His  redeemed. 

As  to  the  Catholic  Church  herself,  no  vicissitude 
of  circumstances  can  hurt  h^r  which  allows  her  fair 
play.  If,  indeed,  from  the  ultimate  resolution  of  all 
heresies  and  errors  into  some  one  form  of  infidelity 
or  scepticism,  the  nation  was  strong  enough  to  turn 
upon  her  in  persecution,  then  indeed  she  might  be 
expelled  from  our  land,  as  she  has  been  expelled 
already.  Then  persecution  would  do  its  work,  as  it 
did  it  three  centuries  ago.  But  this  is  an  extreme 
case,  which  is  not  to  be  anticipated.  Till  the  nation 
becomes  thus  unanimous  in  unbelief,  Catholics  are 
secured  by  the  collision  and  balance  of  religious 
parties,  and  are  sheltered  under  that  claim  of  tole- 


31 


ration  which  each  sect  prefers  for  itself.  But  give 
us  as  much  as  this,  an  open  field,  we  ask  no  favor  ; 
every  form  of  Protestantism  turns  to  our  advantage. 
Its  establishments  of  religion  remind  men  of  that 
archetypal  Church  of  which  they  are  imitators ;  its 
Creeds  contain  portions  of  our  teaching ;  its  quar- 
rels and  divisions  serve  to  break  up  its  traditions, 
and  disabuse  it  of  its  prejudices;  its  scepticism 
makes  it  turn  in  admiration  and  in  hope  to  her,  who 
alone  is  clear  in  her  teaching  and  consistent  in  its 
transmission ;  its  very  abuse  makes  men  inquire 
about  her.  She  fears  nothing  from  political  parties  ; 
she  shrinks  from  none  of  them,  she  can  coalesce 
with  any.  She  is  not  jealous  of  progress,  nor  im- 
patient with  conservatism,  if  either  be  the  national 
will.  Nor  is  there  anything  to  fear,  except  for  the 
moment  and  for  individuals,  in  that  movement  to- 
wards Pantheism, *  which  excites  the  special  anxiety 
of  many  ;  for,  in  truth,  there  is  something  so  repug- 
nant to  the  feelings  of  man,  in  systems  which  deprive 
God  of  his  perfections,  and  reduce  Him  to  a  name, 
which  remove  the  Creator  to  an  indefinite  distance 
from  His  creatures,  under  the  pretence  of  bringing 
them  near  to  Him,  and  refuse  Him  the  liberty  of 
sending  mediators  and  ordaining  instruments  to  con- 
nect them  with   Him,  which   deny  the  existence  of 


*  I  am  aware  that  the  name  of  Pantheism  is  repudiated  by 
several  writers  of  the  school  I  allude  to,  but  I  think  it  will  be 
found  to  be  the  ultimate  resolution  of  its  principlea 


'62 

sin,  the  need  of  pardon,  and  the  fact  of  punishment, 
which  maintain  that  man  is  happy  here  and  sufficient 
for  himself,  when  he  feels  so  keenly  his  own  igno- 
rance and  desolateness. — and  on  the  other  hand,  the 
sects  and  parties  round  about  us  so  ufterly  helpless 
to  remedy  his  evils,  and  to  supply  his  need, — that 
the  preachers  of  these  new  ideas  from  Germany  and 
America  are  really,  however  much  against  their  will, 
like  Caiaphas,  prophesying  for  us.  Surely  they 
will  find  no  resting  place  any  where,  for  their  feet, 
and  the  feet  of  their  disciples,  but  will  be  tumbled 
down  from  one  depth  of  blasphemy  to  another,  till 
they  arrive  at  sheer  and  naked  atheism,  the  reductio 
ad  absurdum  of  their  initial  principles.  Logic  is  a 
stern  master ;  they  feel  it,  they  protest  against  it ; 
they  profess  to  hate  it,  and  would  fain  dispense  with 
it ;  but  it  is  the  law  of  their  intellectual  nature. 
Struggling  and  shrieking,  but  in  vain,  will  they 
make  the  inevitable  descent  into  that  pit  from  which 
there  is  no  return,  except  through  the  almost  mira- 
culous grace  of  God,  the  grant  of  which  in  this  life 
is  never  hopeless.  And  Israel,  without  a  fight,  will 
see  their  enemies  dead  upon  the  sea-shore. 

I  will  but  observe  in  conclusion,  that,  in  explain- 
ing the  feeling  under  which  I  address  myself  to 
members  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  these  lectures, 
I  have  advanced  one  step  towards  fulfilling  the  ob- 
ject with  which  I  have  undertaken  them.  For  it  is 
a  very  common  difficulty  which  urges  them,  when 


33 

tbey  contemplate  submission  to  the  Catholic  Church, 
that  perhaps  they  shall  thus  be  weakening  the  com- 
munion they  leave,  which,  with  whatever  defects, 
they  see  in  matter  of  fact  to  be  a  defence  of  Chris- 
tianity against  its  enemies.  No,  my  brethren,  if  the 
National  Church  falls,  this  will  be  because  it  is 
national ;  because  it  left  the  centre  of  unity  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  not  because  you  leave  it  in  the 
present.  Cranmer,  Parker,  Jewell,  will  complete 
their  own  work ;  they  who  made  it,  will  be  its  de- 
struction. 


2* 


LECTURE  II. 


THE  MOVEMENT  OF  1833  UNCONGENIAL  TO  THE 
NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

My  object  in  these  Lectures,  my  brethren,  is  not 
to  construct  any  argument  in  favor  of  Catholicism, 
for  there  is  no  need.  Arguments  exist  in  abun- 
dance, and  of  the  highest  cogency,  and  of  the  most 
wonderful  variety,  provided  severally  by  the  merciful 
wisdom  of  its  Divine  Author,  for  distinct  casts  of 
mind  ana  character ; — so  much  so,  that  it  is  often  a 
mistake  in  controversy  to  cumulate  reasons  for  what 
is  on  many  considerations  so  plain  already,  and  the 
evidence  of  which  is  only  weakened  to  the  individual 
inquirer,  if  he  is  distracted  by  fresh  proofs,  consist- 
ent indeed  with  those  which  have  brought  conviction 
to  him,  but  to  him  less  convincing  than  his  own,  and 
at  least  strange  and  unfamiliar.  Every  inquirer 
may  have  enough  of  positive  proof  to  convince  him 
that  Catholicism  is  divine ;  it  is  owing  to  the  force 
of  counter-objections   that   his   conviction   remains 


35 

either  defective  or  unpractical.  I  consider  then  that 
I  shall  be  ministering  in  my  measure  to  the  cause  of 
truth,  if  I  do  ever  so  little  towards  removing  the 
difficulties,  or  any  of  them,  which  beset  the  mind, 
when  it  is  urged  to  accept  Catholicism  as  true.  It 
is  with  this  view  that  I  have  insisted  on  the  real 
character  of  the  Established  Church,  and  its  rela- 
tion to  the  nation ;  for,  if  it  be  mainly,  as  I  have 
represented  it,  a  department  of  government  under 
the  temporal  sovereign,  one  at  least  is  struck  off 
from  the  catalogue  of  your  objections.  You  fear  to 
leave  it  lest  you  should,  by  your  secession,  throw  it 
into  the  hands  of  a  latitudinarian  party ;  but  it 
never  has  been  in  your  hands,  nor  ever  under  your 
influence.  It  is  in  the  hands  of  the  nation  ;  it  is 
mainly  what  the  nation  is  :  such  is  it,  while  you  are 
in  it ;  such  would  it  be,  if  you  left  it.  I  do  not 
deny  you  may  by  your  presence  retard  its  downward 
career,  but  you  are  not  of  the  importance  to  it, 
which  you  fancy. 

Now,  in  the  course  of  the  argument  I  made  a  re- 
mark, which  I  shall  to-day  pursue  I  spoke  of  the 
movement  which  began  in  the  Establishment  in  1833, 
or  shortly  before;  and  I  dwelt  on  the  remarkable 
fact,  that  in  nearly  twenty  years  that  movement, 
though  it  had  exerted  great  influence  over  the  views 
of  individuals,  yet  had  remained  a  mere  party  in  the 
National  Church,  having  had  as  little  real  influence 
as  is  conceivable  over  the  National  Church  itself; 


36 

and  no  wonder,  if  that  Church  be  simply  an  organ 
or  department  of  the  state,  for  in  that  case  all  ec- 
clesiastical acts  really  proceeding  from  the  supreme 
civil  government,  to  influence  the  Establishment  is 
nothing  else  than  to  influence  the  state,  or  even  the 
constitution. 

Now  I  shall  pursue  the  argument.  I  shall,  by 
means  of  one  or  two  suggestions,  try  to  bring  home 
to  you  the  extreme  want  of  congeniality  which  has 
existed  between  the  movement  of  1833,  and  the 
nation  at  large  ;  and  then,  assuming  that  you,  my 
brethren,  owe  your  principles  to  that,  movement,  and 
that  your  first  duty  is  to  your  principles,  I  shall 
infer  your  own  want  of  congeniality  with  the  national 
religion,  however  you  may  wish  it  otherwise;  or 
that  you  have  no  concern  with  it,  have  no  place  in  it, 
have  no  reason  for  belonging  to  it,  and  have  no  re- 
sponsibilities towards  it. 

I  am  then  to  point  out  to  you,  that,  what  is  some- 
times called,  or  rather  what  calls  itself,  the  Anglo- 
Catholic  teaching,  is  not  only  a  novelty  in  this  age 
(for  to  prove  a  thing  new  to  the  age,  is  not  enough 
in  order  to  prove  it  uncongenial),  but  that  while  it 
is  a  system  adventitious  and  superadded  to  the  na- 
tional religion,  it  is  moreover,  not  supplemental,  or 
complemental,  or  collateral,  or  correlative  to  it, — 
not  implicitly  involved  in  it,  not  developed  from  it, — 
nor  combining  with  it,  nor  capable  of  absorption 
into  it ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  most  uncongenial,  and 


37 

heterogeneous,  floating  upon  it,  a  foreign  substance, 
like  oil  upon  the  water.  And  mf  proof  shall  consist, 
first,  of  what  was  augured  of  it,  when  it  commen- 
ced ;  secondly,  what  has  been  fulfilled  concerning  it 
during  its  course. 

As  to  tbe  auguries  with  which  it  started,  we  need 
not  go  beyond  the  first  agents  of  the  movement,  in 
order  to  have  a  tolerably  sufficient  proof  that  it  had 
no  lot,  nor  portion,  nor  parentage  in  the  Established 
Church  ;  for  when  those  who  fiist  recommended  to 
her  its  principles  and  doctrines  are  found  themselves 
to  have  duubted  how  far  they  were  congenial  with 
her,  when  the  very  physicians  wt  re  anxious  what 
would  come  of  their  own  medicines,  who  shall  feel 
confidence  in  them  ?  Such,  however;  was  the  case  : 
its  originators  confessed  that  they  were  forcing  upon 
the  Establishment  doctrines  from  which  it  revolted, 
doctriues  with  which  it  never  had  given  signs  of 
coalescing,  doctrines  which  tended  they  knew  not 
whither.  This  is  what  they  felt,  what  with  no  un- 
certain sound  they  publicly  proclaimed. 

For  instance,  one,  who,  if  any,  is  the  author  of 
the  movement  altogether,  and  whose  writings  were 
published  after  his  death,  says  in  one  of  his  letters, 
11  It  seems  agreed  among  the  wise,  that  we  must 
begin  by  laying  a  foundation."  Again,  he  writes  to 
a  friend,  "  I  am  getting  more  and  more  to  feel,  what 
you  tell  me,  about  the  impracticability  of  making 
sensible  people,"  that  is,  the  High  Church  party  of 


38 

the  day,  "  enter  into  our  ecclesiastical  views ;  and, 
what  is  most  discouf aging,  I  hardly  see  how  to  set 
about  leading  them  to  us."  Elsewhere  he  asks, 
"How  is  it  we  are  so  much  in  advance  of  our  gene- 
ration ?"  And  again,  "  The  age  is  out  of  joint." 
And  again,  "  I  shall  write  nothing  on  the  subject 
of  Church  grievances,  till  I  have  a  tide  to  work 
with."  Further  he  calls  the  Establishment  "an 
incubus  upon  the  country,"  and,  "  a  upas  tree :" 
and,  lastly,  within  three  or  four  months  of  his  death, 
his  theological  view  still  expanding  and  diverging 
from  the  existing  state  of  things,  he  exclaims, 
"How  mistaken  we  may  ourselves  be  on  many 
points,  that  are  only  gradually  opening  on  us!"* 

Avowals  of  a  like  character  are  made  with  the 
utmost  frankness  in  the  very  work  which  professed 
formally  to  lay  down  and  defend  the  new  doctrines. 
The  writer  begins  by  allowing  and  apologizing,  that 
he  is  "  discussing,  rather  than  teaching,  what  was 
meant  to  be  simply  an  article  of  faith,"  and  that,  on 
the  ground  that  "  the  teaching  of  the  Apostles  con- 
cerning it,  is,  in  a  good  measure,  withdrawn,"  and 
that,  "  we  are,  so  far,  left  to  make  the  best  of  our 
way  to  the  promised  land  by  our  natural  resources." 
The  preaching  of  the  doctrines  of  the  movement, 
are  compared  to  the  original  preaching  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  this  only  alleviation  is  suggested,  if  it 


*  Froude's  Remains,  voLl. 


39 


be  any,  that  those  who  are  startled  at  them,  could 
not  be  more  startled  than  *'  the  outcasts  to  whom 
the  Apostles  preached  in  the  beginning."  Nay,  it 
is  categorically  stated,  that  "  they  are  in  one  sense 
as  entirely  new  as  Christianity  when  first  preached." 
He  continues,  "Protestantism  and  Popery. J*  by 
which  he  means  the  popular  Catholic  system,  "  are 
real  religions;  no  one  can  doubt  about  them;  they 
have  furnished  the  mould  in  which  nations  have 
been  cast ;  but  the  Via  Media,  viewed  as  an  inte- 
gral system,  has  scarcely  had  existence  except  on 
paper."  Presently  he  continues,  "  It  still  remains 
to  be  tried,  whether  what  is  called  Anglo- Catho- 
licism, the  religion  of  Andrewes,  Laud,  Hammond, 
Butler,  and  Wilson,  is  capable  of  being  professed, 
acted  on,  and  maintained  in  a  large  sphere  of  action, 
and  through  a  sufficient  period ;  or  whether  it  be  a 
mere  modification  or  transition  state,  either  of  Ro- 
manism or  of  popular  Protestantism,  according  as 
we  view  it."  "It  may  be  argued,"  he  adds,  and, 
as  he  does  not  deny,  argued  with  plausibility,  "  that 
the  Church  of  England,  as  established  by  law,  and 
existing  in  fact,  has  never  represented  a  certain 
doctrine,  or  been  the  development  of  a  principle, 
that  it  has  been  but  a  name,  or  a  department  of  the 
state,  or  a  political  party,  in  which  religious  opinion 
was  an  accident,  and  therefore  has  been  various." 
And  this  prospectus,  as  it  may  be  called,  of  a  new 
system,  ends  by  stating  that  '"  it  is  proposed  to  offer 


40 

helps  towards  the  formation  of  a  recognized  Angli- 
can theology  in  one  of  its  departments."  .  .  .  "We 
require  a  recognized  theology,"  he  insists,  "  and,  if 
the  present  work,  instead  of  being  what  it  is  meant 
to  be,  a  first  approximation  to  the  required  solution, 
in  one  department  of  a  complicared  problem,  con- 
tains, after  all,  but  a  series  of  illustrations  demon- 
strating our  need,  and  supplying  hiuts  for  its  remo- 
val ;  such  a  result,  it  is  evident,  will  be  quite  a 
sufficient  return  for  whatever  anxiety  it  has  cost  the 
writer  to  have  employed  his  own  judgment  on  so 
Serious  a  subject  ."* 

I  must  add,  in  justice  to  this  writer,  and  it  is  not 
much  to  say,  that  be  did  not  entertain  the  presump- 
tuous thought  of  creating,  at  this  time  of  day,  a 
new  theology  himself;  he  considered  that  a  theology, 
true  in  itself,  and  necessary  for  the  position  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  was  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of 
Andrewes,  Laud,  Bramhall,  Stillingfleet,  Butler,  and 
other  of  its  divines;  but  bad  never  been  put  to- 
gether, as  he  expressly  declares.  Nor,  in  spite  of 
his  misgivings,  was  he  without  a  persuasion,  that  the 
theological  system,  contained  in  those  writers,  and 
derived,  as  he  believed,  from  the  primitive  fathers, 
not  only  ought  to  be,  but  might  be,  and,  as  he  hoped, 
would  be,  acknowledged  and  acted  upon  by  the  Es- 
tablishment.    Yet  on  the  other,   I  allow,  of  course, 


*  Newman's  Prophetical  Office. 


41 

and  am  not  loth  to  allow,  that,  had  he  seen  clearly 
that  antiquity  and  the  Establishment  were  incom- 
patible with  each  other,  he  would  promptly  have 
given  up  the  Establishment,  rather  than  have  re- 
jected antiquity.  Moreover,  let  it  be  observed,  in 
evidence  of  his  misgivings  on  the  point,  that  when 
he  gets 'to  the  end  of  his  volume,  instead  of  their 
being  removed,  they  return  in  a  more  definite  form, 
and  he  confesses  that  "  the  thought,  with  which  we 
entered  upon  the  subject,  is  apt  to  recur,  when  the 
excitement  of  the  inquiry  has  subsided,  and  weari- 
ness has  succeeded,  that  what  has  been  said  is  but  a 
dream,  tho  wanton  exercise,  rather  than  the  prac- 
tical conclusions,  of  the  intellect." 

These  auguries  speedily  met  with  a  response, 
though  in  a  less  tranquil  tone,  in  every  part  of  the 
Establishment,  and  by  each  of  the  schools  of  opinion 
within  it, — the  High  Church  section,  the  Evangeli- 
cal, and  the  Latitudinarian.  They  condemned,  not 
only  the  attempt,  but  the  authors  of  it.  The  late 
Dr.  Arnold,  a  man  who  always  spoke  his  mind, 
avowed  that  his  feelings  towards  a  Roman  Catholic 
were  quite  different  from  his  feelings  to  the  author 
of  the  above  work.  "I  think  the  one,"  he  con- 
tinued, "  a  fair  enemy,  the  other  a  treacherous  one. 
The  one  is  the  Frenchman  in  his  own  uniform,  the 
other  is  the  Frenchman  disguised  in  a  red  coat.  I 
should  honor  the  first,  and  hang  the  second."  For 
the   Evangelical  party,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to 


42 

make  the  following  extracts  from  the  work  of  even 
a  cautious  and  careful  writer : — "  If,"  says  the 
writer  of  'Essays  on  the  Church,'  "  the  grievances 
and  warfare-  of  Dissenters  against  it  have  greatly 
diminished  in  interest,  a  new  and  gigantic  evil  has 
arisen  up  in  their  room.  .  .  .  Popery,  not  indeed  of 
the  days  of  Hildebraud  or  Leo  the  Tenth,  but  Popery 
as  it  first  established  itself  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
centuries,  is  already  among  us.  .  .  .  Popery  has 
anew  arisen  up  among  us,  in  youthful  vigor  and  in 
her  youthful  attractions.  Such  is  the  chief,  the 
greatly  preponderating  peril,  which  besets  the  Church 
of  England  at  the  present  day.  It  has  in  it  all  the 
essential  features  of  Popery  ;  but,  apart  from  this, 
and  were  io  never  to  proceed  beyond  the  perils  to 
which  it  has  now  reached,  it  is  fraught  with  the 
fearful  evil  of  a  withering,  parching,  blighting  ope- 
ration, drying-up  and  banishing  all  spiritual  life  and 
influence  from  the  Church."* 

Lastly,  a  theological  professor  of  the  High  Church 
section,  in  an  attack  which  he  delivered  from  the 
pulpit,  viewed  the  movement  from  another  point  of 
view,  yet  with  a  perfect  accordance  of  judgment 
with  the  two  writers  who  have  been  already  cited  : 
11  Instead  of  quietly  acquiescing,"  he  says,  "  in 
what  they  cannot  change,  submitting  in  silence  to 
their   imagined   privations,   and   patiently   enduring 


*  E  says  on  the  Church,  by  a  Layman,  1838,  pp.  270, 299,  300. 
Ditto  1840,  p.  401. 


43 

this  '  meagreness  of  Protestantism,'  by  a  species  of 
*  ecclesiastical  agitation,'  uuexampl  d  in  obtrusive- 
ness  and  perseverance,  they  are  unsettling  the  faith 
of  the  weak,  blinding  the  judgment  of  the  sober- 
minded,  raising  the  hopes  of  the  most  inveterate 
adversaries  of  our  Reformed  and  Protestant  Church, 
and,  as  far  as  a  small  knot  of  malcontents  can  well 
be  supposed  capable,  they  are  compromising  her 
character  and  disturbing  her  peace."* 

Yet  even  at  this  date,  in  spite  of  the  success 
which  for  five  years  had  attended  him,  the  apologist 
for  Mr.  Froude  and  his  friends  had  felt  no  greater 
confidence  than  before  in  his  congeniality  with  the 
National  Church,  and  on  occasion  of  the  last-men- 
tioned attack,  scrupled  not  to  avow  the  fact.  "  Sure 
I  am,"  said  he,  "  that  the  more  stir  is  made  about 
those  opinions  which  you  censure,  the  wider  they 
will  spread.  Whatever  be  the  faults  or  mistakes  of 
their  advocates,  they  have  that  root  of  truth  in  them, 
which,  as  I  do  firmly  believe,  has  a  blessing  with  it. 
/  do  not  pretend  to  say  they  will  ever  become  widely 
popular,  that  is  another  matter  :  truth  is  never,  or 
at  least  never  long  popular  ;  nor  do  T  say  they  will 
ever  gain  that  powerful  external  influence  over  the 
many,  which  truth,  vested  in  the  few,  cherished, 
throned,  energizing  in  the  few,  often  has  possessed  ; 
nor  that  they  are  not  destined,  as  truth  has  often 


*  Faussett's  Sermon,  Preface  to  third  edition 


been  destined,  to  be  east  away,  and  at  length  trodden 
under  foot  as  an  odious  thimj  :  hut  of  this  I  am 
sure,  that,  at  this  juncture,  in  proportion  as  they  are 
known,  they  will  make  their  way  through  the  com- 
munity, ■picking  out  their  own,  sei  king  and  obtaining 
refuge  in  the  hearts  of  Christians,  high  and  low, 
here  and  there,  with  this  man  and  that,  as  the  case 
may  be;  doing  their  work  in  their  day,  and  raising 
a  memorial  and  a  witness  to  this  fallen  generation  of 
what  once  has  been,  of  what  God  would  ever  have, 
of  what  one  day  shall  be  in  perfection  ;  and  that  not 
from  what  they  are  in  themselves,  because,  viewed 
in  the  concrete,  they  are  mingled,  as  every  thing 
human  must  be,  with  error  and  infirmity,  but  by 
reason  of  the  spirit,  the  truth,  the  old  Catholic  life 
and  power  which  is  in  them."* 

What  was  it,  then,  which  the  originators  of  the 
movement  in  question  desiderated  or  doubted,  with 
reference  to  it,  in  the  communion  for  whose  benefit 
it  was  intended  ?  Why  did  they  dread  or  doubt  lest 
the  principles  of  St.  Atbanasius  and  St.  Ambrose 
should  fail  to  take  root  in  the  minds  of  their  breth- 
ren, and  to  spread  through  the  laity  ?  In  truth, 
when  they  feared  that  the  good  seed  would  fall,  not 
on  a  congenial  soil,  but  on  hard  or  stony  or  occupied 
ground,  they  were  fearing  lest  the  National  Church, 
though    they    did    not  use  the   word,   had  not  life . 


*  Newman's  Letter  to  Faussett. 


m 

JLife  consists  or  manifests  itself  in  activity  of  prin- 
ciple. There  are  various  kinds  of  life,  and  each 
kind  is  the  influence  or  operation  in  a  body,  of  those 
principles  upon  which  the  body  is  constituted.  Each 
kind  of  life  is  to  be  referred,  and  is  congenial,  to  its 
own  principle.  Principles;  distinct  from  each  other, 
will  not  take  root  and  flourish  in  bodies,  to  which 
respectively  they  are  foreign.  One  principle  has  not 
the  life  of  another.  The  life  of  a  plant  is  not  the 
same  as  the  life  of  an  animated  being;  and  the  life 
of  the  body  is  not  the  same  as  the  life  of  the  intel- 
lect; nor  is  the  life  of  the  intellect  the  same  in  kind 
as  the  life  of  grace  ;  nor  is  the  life  of  the  Church 
the  same  as  the  life  of  the  State.  When  then 
these  writers  doubted  whether  Apostolical  principles, 
as  they  called  them,  would  spread  through  the  laity 
of  England,  they  were  doubting  whether  that,  lair.y 
lived,  breathed,  energized,  in  Apostolical  principles  ; 
whether  Apostolicrl  principles  were  the  just  ex^ 
pression,  and  the  element  of  the  national  sentiment; 
whether  the  intellectual  and  moral  life  of  the  nation 
was  not  distinct  from  the  life  of  the  Apostolical  aire; 
and,  if  the  Establishment  were  professedly  built 
upon  the  principles  and  professedly  partook  of  the 
life  of  the  Apostolical  age,  as  they  knew  ought  to  be 
the  case,  then  they  were  doubting  whether  it  was 
what  it  professed  to  be. 

There  was  no  doubt   at  all,   there  is  no  doubt  at 
all,   that  the  Establishment  has  some  kind  of  life. 


46 

No  one  ever*  doubted  it;  and  it  is  triumphantly 
proved  by  one  of  its  dignitaries,  in  a  passage  which 
I  quote: — "  Surely,  my  dear  friend,"  says  tbis  ac- 
complished writer,*  with  a  reference  to  the  present 
controversy,  "  it  requires  an  inordinate  faith  in  one's 
own  logical  dreams,  an  idolizing  worship  of  one's 
own  opinions,  to  believe  that  the  Church  ol  England, 
blest  as  she  has  been  by  God  for  so  many  genera- 
tio  s,  raised  as  she  has  been  by  Him  to  be  the 
m  >ther  of  so  many  churches,  with  such  a  promise 
shining  upon  her,  and  brightening  every  year,  that 
her  daughters  should  spread  round  the  earth,  that 
she,  who  has  been  chosen  by  God  to  be  the  instru- 
ment of  so  many  blessings,  and  the  presence  of  the 
Lord  and  His  Spirit  with  whom  was  never  more 
manifest  than  at  this  day,  should  forfeit  her  office 
and  authority,  as  a  witness  of  the  t  uth,  should  be 
cut  off  from  the  body  of  Christ's  Church,  and  should 
no  longer  be  able  to  dispense  the  grace  of  the  sa- 
craments, because  her  highest  law  court  has  not 
condemned  a  proposition  asserted  by  one  of  her 
ministers,  concerning  a  very  obscure  and  perplexing 
question  of  dogmatical  theology.  Surely  this  would 
be  an  extraordinary  delusion  .  .  .  for,  whatever  the 
dogmatical  value  of  the  opinion"  in  question  "  may 
be,  the  error  is  not  one  which  indicates  any  want  of 
personal  faith  and  holiness,  or  any  decay  of  Christian 
life  in  the  Church." 


Archdeacon  Hare,  in  Record  newspaper 


47 


No,  I  grant  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  the  ima- 
gination to  receive  it  as  a  dogma,  that  there  was  no 
"life"  in  the  National  Chu  ch,  nor  indeed  " faith.'' 
The  simple  question  is,  What  is  meant  by  "life"  and 
"  faith  V"  Will  he  Archdeacon  tell  us  whether  he 
does  not  mean  by  faith  a  something  very  va^ue  and 
comprehensive  ?  Does  he  mean,  as  he  might  say, 
ths  faith  of  St.  Austin,  and  of  Peter  the  Hermit, 
and  of  Luther,  and  of  Rousseau,  and  of  Washing- 
ton, and  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  ?  Faith  has  one 
meaning  to  a  Catholic,  another  to  a  Protestant. 
And  life, — is  it  the  religious  "life"  of  England,  or 
of  Prussia,  or  is  it  Catbolic  life,  that  is,  the  life 
which  belongs  to  Catholic  principles  ?  Else  we 
shall  be  arguing  in  a  circle,  if  Protestants  are  to 
prove  that  they  have  that  life,  which  manifests  "the 
presence  of  the  Spirit,"  because  they  have,  as  they 
are  sure  to  have,  a  life  congenial  and  in  conformity 
to  Protestant  principles.  If  then  "  life"  means 
strength,  activity,  energy,  and  well-being  of  any 
kind,  in  that  case  doubtless  the  national  religion  is 
alive.  It  is  a  great  power  in  the  midst  of  us ;  it 
wields  an  enormous  influence  ;  it  represses  a  hundred 
foes ;  it  conducts  1  hundred  undertakings.  It  at- 
tracts men  to  it,  uses  them,  rewards  them ;  it  has 
thousands  of  beautiful  homes  up  and  down  the  coun- 
try, where  quiet  men  may  do  its  work  and  benefit  its 
people ;  it  collects  vast  sums  in  the  shape  of  volun- 
tary offerings,   and  with  them  it  builds  churches. 


48 

prints  and  distributes  innumerable  Bibles,  books, 
and  tracts,  and  sustains  missionaries  in  all  parts  of 
the.  earth.  Iu  all  parts  of  the  earth  it  opposes  the 
Catholic  Church,  denounces  her  as  anti-cbristian, 
bribes  the  world  against  her,  obstructs  her  influence, 
apes  her  authority,  and  confuses  ber  evidence.  In 
all  parts  of  the  world  it  is  the  religion  of  gen- 
tlemen, of  scholars,  of  men  of  substance,  and 
men  of  no  religion  at  all  If  this  be  life, — if  it 
be  life  to  impart  a  tone  to  the  court  and  houses 
of  parliament,  to  ministers  of  state,  to  law  and 
literature,  to  universities  and  schools,  and  to  so- 
ciety,— if  it  be  life  to  be  a  principle  of  order  in 
the  population,  and  an  organ  of  benevolence  and 
almsgiving  towards  the  poor, — if  it  be  life  to 
make  men  dec  Tit,  respectable,  and  sensible,  to  em- 
bellish and  refine  the  family  circle,  to  deprive  vice 
of  its  grossness,  and  to  shed  a  gloss  over  avarice  and 
ambition, — if  indeed  it  is  the  life  of  religion  to  be 
the  first  jewel  in  the  queen's  crown,  and  the  highest 
step  of  her  throne,  then  doubtless  the  National 
Church  is  replete,  it  overflows  with  life;  but  the 
question  has  still  to  be  answered,  Life  of  what  kind? 
Heresy  has  its  life,  worldliness  has  its  life.  Is  the 
Establishment's  life  merely  national  life,  or  is  it 
something  more  ?  Is  it  Catholic  life  as  well  ?  Is  it 
a  supernatural  life  ?  Is  it  congenial  with,  does  it 
proceed  from,  does  it  belong  to  the  principles  of  apos- 
tles, martyrs,  evangelists,  and  doctors,  the  principles 


49 

which  the  movement  of  1833  thought  to  impose  or 
to  graft  upon  it,  or  does  it  revolt  from  them  ?  If  it 
be  Catholic  and  Apostolic,  it  will  endure  Catholic 
and  Apostolic  principles ;  no  one  doubts  it  can  en- 
dare  Erastian ;  no  one  doubts  it  can  be  patient  of 
Protestant ;  this  is  the  problem  which  was  started  by 
the  movement  in  question,  the  problem  for  which 
surely  there  has  been  an  abundance  of  tests  in  the 
course  of  twenty  years. 

But  the  passage  I  have  quoted  suggests  a  second 
observation.  I  have  spoken  of  the  tests,  which  the 
last  twenty  years  have  furnished,  of  the  real  charac- 
ter of  the  Establishment ;  for  I  must  not  be  supposed 
to  be  enquiring  whether  the  Establishment  has  been 
unchurched  during  that  period,  but  whether  it  has 
been  proved  to  be  no  Church  already.  The  want  of 
congeniality  which  now  exists  between  the  sentiments 
and  ways,  the  moral  life  of  the  Anglican  communion, 
and  the  principles,  doctrines,  traditions  of  Catho- 
licism,— I  speak  of  this  in  order  to  prove  something 
done  and  over  Ions;  ago,  in  order  to  show  that  the 
movement  of  1833  was  from  the  first  engaged  in 
propagating  an  unreality.  The  eloquent  writer 
just  quoted,  in  ridicule  of  the  protest  made  by  twelve 
very  distinguished  men,  against  the  Queen's  recent 
decision  concerning  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  con- 
trasts "logical  dreams"  and  "obscure  and  perplex- 
ing questions  of  dogmatic  theology"  with  "  the 
promise"  in  the  Establishment  of  a  large  family  "of 
3 


50 

daughters,   spread   round    the    earth,    shining    and 
brightening  every  year."     Now  I  grant  that  it  has  a 
narrow  and  technical  appearance  to  rest  the  Catho- 
licity  of  a   religious  body  on  particular  words,  or 
deeds,  or  measures,  resulting  from  the  temper  of  a 
particular  age,  accidentally  elicited,  and  accomplished 
in  minutes  or  in  days.     I  allow  it  and  feel  it ;  that  a 
particular  vote  of  parliament,  endured  or  tacitly  ac- 
cepted by  bishops  and  clergy,  or  by  the  Metropolitans, 
or  a  particular  appointment,  or  a  particular  omission, 
or  a  particular  statement  of  doctrine,  should  at  once 
change  the  spiritual  character  of  the  body,  and  ipso 
facto  cut  it  off  from  the  centre  of  unity  and  the 
source  of  grace,  is  almost  incredible.     In  spite  of 
such  acts,  surely  the  Anglican  Church  might  be  to- 
day what  it  was  yesterday,  with  an  internal  power 
and  a  supernatural  virtue,  provided  it  had  not  al- 
ready forfeited  them,  and  would  go  about  its  work  as 
of  old  time.     It  would  be  to-day  pretty  much  what 
it  was  yesterday,  though  in  the  course  of  the  night  it 
had  allowed  an  Anglo -Prussian  see  to  be  set  up  in 
Jerusalem,    and  subscribed   to  a  disavowal   of  the 
Athanasian  Creed.     This  is  the  common  sense  of  the 
matter,  to  which  the  mind  recurs  with  satisfaction 
after  zeal  and  ingenuity  have  done  their  utmost  to 
prove  the  contrary.     Of  course  I  am  not  saying  that 
individual  acts  do  not  tend  towards,  and  a  succession 
of  acts  does  not  issue  in,  the  most  serious  spiritual 
consequences ;  but  it  is  so  difficult  to  determine  the 


5i 


Worth  of  each  ecclesiastical  act,  and  what  its  position 
is  relatively  to  acts  and  events  before  and  afrer.it, 
that  I  have  no  intention  of  urging  any  argument 
deduced  from  such.  A  generation  may  not  be  long 
enough  for  the  completion  of  an  act  of  schism  or 
heresy.  Judgments  admit  of  repeal  or  reversal  ; 
enactments  are  liable  to  flaws  ami  informalities;  laws 
require  promulgation  ;  documents  admit  of  explana- 
tion; words  must  be  interpreted  either  by  context  or 
by  circumstances;  majorities  may  be  analyz  d;  re- 
sponsibilities may  be  shifted.  1  admit  the  remark  of 
another  writer  in  the  present  controversy,  though  I 
do  not  accept  his  conclusion:  "The  Church's 
motion,"  he  says,  "is  not  that  of  a  machine,  to  be 
calculated  with  accuracy,  and  predicted  beforehand  ; 
where  one  serious  injury  will  disturb  all  regularity, 
and  finally  put  a  stop  to  action.  It  is  that  ol  a  living 
body,  whose  motions  will  be  irregular,  incapable 
of  being  exactly  arranged  and  foretold,  and  where  it 
is  nearly  impossible  to  say  how  much  health  may  co- 
exist with  how  much  disease  "  Aud  he  "speaks  of 
the  line  of  reasoning  which  he  is  opposing,  as  being 
"too  logical  to  be  real.  Men,"  he  observes,  "  do 
not  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life  act  on  such  clear, 
sharp,  definite  theories.  Such  reasoning  can  never 
be  the  cause  of  any  one  leaving  the  Church  of  Eng*» 
land.  But  it  looks  well  on  paper,  and  therefore  may 
perhaps  be  put  forward  as  a  theoretical  argument  by 


52 

those  who,  from  some  other  feeling,  or  fancy,  of  pre-» 
judice,  or  honest  conviction,  think  fit  to  leav.^us."* 

Truly  said,  except  in  the  imputation  conveyed  in 
the  concluding  words  I  will  grant  that  it  is  by  life 
without  us,  b}r  life  within  us,  by  the  work  of  grace 
in  our  communion  and  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  all 
of  as  accustomed  practically  to  judge  whether  that 
communion  be  Catholic  or  not ;  not  by  this  or  that 
formal  act,  or  histo-ical  event.  I  will  grant  it, 
though  of  course  it  requires  some  teach  ng,  and  some 
discernment,  and  some  prayer,  to  understand  what 
spiritual  life  is,  and  what  is  the  working  of  grace. 
However,  at  any  rate,  let  the  proposition  puss ; 
transeat  ;  I  will  here  allow  it,  at  least  for  argument's 
sake,  for,  my  brethren,  I  am  not  here  going  to  look 
out,  in  the  last  twenty  years,  for  dates  when,  and 
ways  in  which,  the  Establishment  fell  from  Catholic 
unity,  and  lost  its  divine  privileges.  No ;  the  ques- 
tion before  us  is  nothing  narrow  or  technical ;  it  has 
no  cut  and  dried  premises,  and  peremptory  conclu- 
sions ;  it  is  not  whether  this  or  that  statute  or  canon 
at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  this  or  that  "  fur- 
ther and  further  encroachment"  of  the  State,  this 
or  that  "Act  of  William  IV."  constituted  the  Es- 
tablishment's formal  separation  from  the  Church; 
not  whether  the  Queen's  recent  decision  binds  it  to 


*  Neale's  Few  Words  of  Hope,  pp.  11, 12. 


53 


heresy;  but,  whether  these  acts,  and  abundant 
others,  are  not  one  and  all  evidences,  in  one  out  of  a 
hundred  heads  of  evidence,  that  whatever  were  the 
acts  which  constitute,  or  the  moment  which  com- 
pleted the  schism,  or  rather  the  utter  disorganisation, 
of  the  National  Church,  cut  off  and  disorganised  it 
is.  No  sober  man,  I  suppose,  dreams  of  denying, 
that  if  that  Church  be  impure  and  un-apostolical 
now,  it  has  had  no  claim  to  be  called  "  pure  and 
apostolical"  last  year,  or  twenty  years  back,  or  for 
any  part  of  the  period  since  the  Reformation. 

W.e  have,  then,  this  simple  question  before  us, 
"What  evidence  is  there,  that  the  doctrines  and  prin- 
ciples proclaimed  to  the  world  in  1833  had,  then  or 
now,  any  congeniality  with  the  Establishment  in 
which  they  were  propagated,  or  can  live  in  that  Es- 
tablishment; whether  they  can  move  and  work, 
whether  they  can  breathe  and  live  in  it,  better  than 
a  behi£  with  lungs  in  an  exhausted  receiver  ?  It 
was  doubted,  as  we  have  seen,  by  their  first  preach- 
ers;  how  has  it  been  determined  by  the  event? 
Now  then,  to  give  one  or  two  specimens  and  illus- 
trations of  a  fact  too  certain,  as  I  think,  to  need 
much  dwelling  on. 

We  know  that  it  is  the  property  of  life  to  be  im- 
patient of  any  foreign  substance  in  the  body  to  which 
it  belongs.  It  will  be  sovereign  in  its  own  domain, 
and  it  conflicts  with  what  it  cannot  assimilate  into 


54 

itself,  and  is  irritated  and  disordered  till  it  has  ex- 
pelled it.  Such  expulsion,  then,  is,  emphatically,  a 
test  of  un congeniality,  for  it  shows  that  the  sub- 
stance ejected,  not  only  is  not  one  with  the  body 
that  rejects  it,  but  cannot  be  made  one  with  it ;  that 
its  introduction  is  not  only  useless,  or  superfluous, 
or  adventitious,  bat  that  it  is  intolerable.  For  in- 
stance, it  is  usual  for  High  Churchmen  to  speak  of 
the  Establishment  as  patient,  in  matter  of  fact,  both 
of  Catholic  and  Protestant  principles; — most  true 
as  regards  Protestant,  and  it  will  illustrate  my  point 
to  give  instances  of  it.  No  one  can  doubt,  then, 
that  neither  Lutheramsm  nor  Calvanism  is  the  exact 
doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  yet  either 
her  ,sy  can  readily  coalesce  with  it  in  matter  of  fact. 
Persons  of  Lutheran  and  Calvini:*tic,  and  Luthero- 
Calvinist  bodies,  are  and  have  been  chosen  without 
scruple  by  the  English  people  for  husbands  and 
wives,  for  sponsors,  for  missionaries,  foi-  deans  and 
can  >ns,  without  any  foimal  transition  from  com- 
munion to  communion.  The  Anglican  Prelates 
wr.te  co  np'iment  iry  letters  to  what  they  call  the 
fo  eign  Protestant  Churches,  and  they  attend,  with 
their  clergy  and  laity,  Protestant  places  of  wo  ship 
abroad.  William  III.  was  called  to  the  throne, 
though  a  Calnni-t,  and  Geo  ge  I.,  though  a  Luther- 
an and  that  in  ord  r  to  exclude  a  family  who  ad- 
hered to  the  religion  of  Home.     The  national  re- 


55 

iigion  then  has  a  congeniality  with  Lutheranlsm  and 
Calvinism,  which  it  has  not,  for  instance,  with  the 
Greek  religion,  or  the  Jewish.  Religions,  as  they 
come,  whatever  they  be,  are  not  indifferent  to  it ;  it 
takes  up  one,  it  precipitates  another;  it,  as  every 
religion,  has  a  life,  a  spirit,  a  genius  of  its  own,  in 
which  doctrines  lie  implicit,  out  of  which  they  are 
developed,  and  by  which  they  are  attracted  into  it 
from  without,  and  assimilated  to  it. 

There  is  a  passage  in  Moehler's  celebrated  work 
on  Symbolism,  so  much  to  the  point  here,  that  I 
will  quote  it :  "  Each  nation,"  he  says,  "  is  endowed 
with  a  peculiar  character,  stamped  on  the  deepest, 
most  hidden  parts  of  its  being,  which  distinguishes 
it  from  all  other  nations,  and  manifests  its  pecu- 
liarity in  public  and  domestic  life,  in  art  and  science, 
in  short,  in  every  relation.  In  every  general  act  of 
a  people,  the  national  spirit  is  infallibly  expressed ; 
and  should  contests,  should  selfish  tactions  occur,  the 
element  destructive  to  the  vital  principle  of  the 
whole  will  most  certainly  be  detected  in  them,  and 
the  commotion,  excited  by  an  alien  spirit,  either 
miscarries,  or  is  expelled ;  as  long  as  the  community 
preserves  its  self- consciousness,  as  long  as  its  pecu- 
liar genius  yet  lives,  and  works  within  it.  .  .  .  Let 
us  contemplate  the  religious  sect  founded  by  Luther 
himself.  The  developed  doctrines  of  his  Church, 
consigned  as  they  are  in  the  symbolical  books,  re- 


66 

tain,  on  the  whole,  so  much  of  his  spirit,  that,  at  the 
first  view,  they  must  be  recognized  by  the  observer 
as  genuine  productions  of  Luther.  With  a  sure 
vital  instinct,  the  opinions  of  the  Majorists,  the 
Synergists,  and  others,  were  rejected  as  deadly,  and 
indeed  (from  Luther's  point  of  view)  as  untrue,  by 
that  community  whose  soul,  whose  living  principle, 
he  was."* 

We  have  the  most  vivid  and  impressive  illustra- 
tions of  the  truth  of  these  remarks  in  the  history  of 
the  Church.  The  religious  life  of  a  people  is  of  a 
certain  quality  and  direction,  and  these  are  tested 
by  the  mode  in  which  it  encounters  the  various 
opinions,  customs,  and  institutions  which  are  sub- 
mitted to  it.  Drive  a  stake  into  a  river's  bed,  and 
you  will  at  once  ascertain  which  way  it  is  running, 
and  at  what  speed ;  throw  up  even  a  straw  upon  the 
air,  and  you  will  see  which  way  the  wind  blows ; 
submit  your  heretical  and  your  Catholic  principle  to 
the  action  of  the  multitude,  and  you  will  be  able  to 
pronounce  at  once  whether  it  is  imbued  with  Catho- 
lic truth,  or  with  heretical  falsehood.  Take,  for 
example,  a  passage  in  the  history  of  the  f3urth  cen- 
tury ;  let  the  place  be  Milan ;  the  date,  the  Lent  of 
384,  385  ;  the  reigning  powers  Justina  and  her  son 
Valentinian,    and   St.    Ambrose    the    Archbishop. 


Robertson's  Transl.  vol.  ii.,  pp.  36, 39. 


The  city  is  in  an  uproar  ;  there  is  a  mob  before  the 
inipeiial  residence ;  the  soldiery  interferes  in  vain, 
and  Ambrose  is  despatched  by  th^  couit  to  disperse 
the  people.  A  month  elapses ;  Palm  Sunday  is 
come  ;  the  Archbishop  is  expounding  the  Creed  to 
the  catechumens,  when  he  is  told  that  the  people 
are  again  in  commotion.  A  second  message  comes, 
that  they  have  seized  one  of  the  empress'  priests, 
The  court  makes  reprisals  on  the  tradesmen,  some 
of  whom  are  fined,  some  thrown  into  prison,  while 
men  of  higher  rank  are  threatened.  We  are  arrived 
at  the  middle  of  Holy  Week,  and  we  find  soldiers 
posted  before  one  of  the  churches,  and  Ambrose  has 
menaced  them  with  excommunication.  His  threat 
overcomes  them,  and  they  join  the  congregation  to 
whom  he  is  preaching.  The  court  gives  way,  the 
guards  are  withdrawn  to  their  quarters,  and  the  fines 
are  remitted.  What  does  all  this  mean?  There 
evidently  has  been  a  quarrel  between  the  court  and 
the  Archbishop,  and  the  Archbishop,  aided  by  the 
p  :>pular  enthusiasm,  has  conquered.  A  year  passes, 
and  there  is  a  second  and  more  serious  disturbance. 
Soldiers  have  surrounded  the  same  church ;  yet, 
dreading  an  excommunication,  they  let  the  people 
enter,  but  refuse  to  let  them  pass  out.  Still  the 
people  keep  entering ;  they  fill  the  church,  the  court- 
yard, the  priests'  lodgings ;  and  there  they  remain 
with  the  Archbishop  for  two  or  three  days,  singing 
psalms,  till  the  soldiers,  overcome  by  the  music, 
3* 


58 

sing  psalms  too,  and  the  blockade  melts  away,  no 
one  knows  how.  And  now,  what  was  the  cause  of 
so  enthusiastic,  so  dogged  an  opposition  to  the  court, 
on  the  part  of  the  population  of  Milan  ?  The  ans- 
wer is  plain;  it  was  because  they  loved  Christ  so 
well,  and  were  so  sensitive  of  the  doctrine  of  His 
divinity,  that  they  would  not  allow  the  reigning 
powers  to  take  a  Church  from  them,  and  bestow  it 
on  the  Arians.  I  conceive,  then,  that  Catholicism 
was  emphatically  the  religion  of  Milan,  or  that  the 
life  of  the  Milanese  Church  was  a  Catholic  life. 

And  so,  in  like  manner,  when  iu  St.  Giles's 
Church,  Edinburgh,  in  July,  1635,  the  dean  of  the 
city  opened  the  service-book,  in  the  presence  of 
Bishop  and  privy  council,  and  u  a  multitude  of  the 
meanest  sort,  most  of  them  women,"  clapped  their 
hands,  cursed  him,  cried  out,  "  A  pope !  a  pope ! 
antichrist!  stone  him;'-*  and  one  flung  a  stool  at 
the  Bishop,  and  others  threw  stones  at  doors  and 
windows,  and  at  Privy-seal  and  Bi-hop  on  their  re- 
tu  n,  and  this  became  the  beginning  of  a  movement 
which  end^d  in  obtaining  the  objects  at  which  it 
aiuied, — this,  I  consider,  shows  clearly  enough  that 
the  religious  life  at  Edinburgh  at  that  day  was  not 
Catholic,  not  Anglican,  but  Presbyterian  and  Puri- 
tan. 

Aud,  to  take  one  more  instance,  when  the  seven 


*  Hume,  Charles  the  First. 


59 

Bishops  were  committed  to  the  Tower,  and  were 
proceeding  "  down  the  river  to  their  place  of  con- 
finement, the  banks  were  covered  with  spectators, 
who,  while  they  knelt  and  asked  their  blessing, 
prayed  themselves  for  a  blessing  on  them  and  their 
cause.  The  very  soldiers  who  guarded  them,  and 
some  even  of  the  officers  to  whose  charge  they  were 
committed,  knelt  in  like  manner  before  them,  and 
besought  their  benediction."  When  they  were 
brought  before  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  they 
"  passed  through  a  line  of  people,  who  kissed  their 
hands  and  their  garments,  and  begged  their  bless- 
ing;" and  when  they  were  admitted  to  bail,  u  bon- 
fires were  made  in  the  streets,  and  healths  drunk  to 
the  Seven  Champions  of  the  Church."  Lastly, 
when  they  were  acquitted,  the  verdict  "  was  re- 
ceived with  a  shout  which  seemed  to  shake  the 
hall.  .  .  .  All  the  churches  were  filled  with  people  ; 
the  bells  rang  from  every  tower,  every  house  was 
illuminated,  and  bonfires  were  kindled  in  every 
street.  Medals  were  struck  in  honor  of  the  event, 
and  portraits  hastily  published  and  eagerly  pur- 
chased, of  men  who  were  compared  to  the  seven 
golden  candlesticks,  and  called  the  seven  stars  of  the 
Protestant  Church."*  Now  here  are  signs  of  life, 
religious  life  doubtless,  but  they  have  nothing  to  do 
with  Catholicism ;  they  are  indubitable,  unequivoca- 


Southey's  Book  of  the  Church. 


60      . 

ble  tokens,  what  the  national  religion  was  and  is, 
affording  a  clear  illustration  of  the  congeniality  ex- 
isting between  the  spirit  or  genius  of  a  system  and 
its  own  principles,  and  not  with  their  opposites. 

Let  a  people  then,  Catholic  or  not,  be  in  ignorance 
of  doctrine — let  them  be  a  practical  busy  people, 
full  of  their  secular  matters — let  them  have  no  keen 
analytical  view  of  the  principles  which  govern  them, 
yet  they  will  be  spontaneously  attracted  by  those 
principles,  and  irritated  by  their  contraries  so,  as 
they  can  be  attracted  or  irritated  by  no  other.  Their 
own  principles  or  their  contraries,  when  once  sounded 
in  their  ears,  thrill  through  them  with  a  vibration, 
pleasant  or  paiuful,  with  sweet  harmony  or  with 
grating  discord;  under  which  they  cannot  rest 
quiet;  bat  relieve  their  feelings  by  gestures  and 
cries,  and  starlings  to  and  fro,  and  expressions  of 
sympathy  or  antipathy  towards  others,  and  at  length 
by  combination,  and  party,  and  vigorous  action. 
When  then  the  note  of  Catholicism,  as  it  may  be 
called,  was  struck  seventeen  years  since,  and  while 
it  has  sounded  louder  and  louder  in  the  national  ear, 
what  has  been  the  response  of  the  national  senti- 
ment ?  It  had  many  things  surely  in  its  favor  ;  it 
sounded  from  a  centre  which  commanded  attention — 
it  sounded  strong  and  full ;  nor  was  it  intermitted 
or  checked  or  lowered  by  the  opposition,  nor  drowned 
by  the  clamor  which  it  occasioned,  while,  at  length, 
it  was  re-echoed  and  repeated  from  other  centres 


61 

with  zeal  and  energy  and  sincerity  and  effect,  as 
great  as  any  cause  could  even  desire  or  could  ask 
for.  So  far,  no  movement  could  have  more  advan- 
tage with  it  than  it  had ;  and,  as  it  proceeded,  it  did 
not  content  itself  with  propagating  an  abstract  theo- 
logy, but  it  took  a  part  in  the  public  events  of  the 
day ;  it  interfered  with  court,  with  ministers,  with 
university  matters,  and  with  counter-movements  of 
whatever  kind. 

And,  moreover,  which  is  much  to  the  purpose,  it 
appealed  to  the  people,  and  that  on  the  very  ground 
that  it  was  Apostolical  in  its  nature.  It  made  the 
experiment  of  this  appeal  the  very  test  of  its  Apos- 
tolicity.  "  I  shall  off  nd  many  men,"  said  one  of 
its  organs,  "  when  I  say,  we  must  look  to  the  people  ; 
but  let  them  give  me  a  hearing.  Well  can  I  under- 
stand their  feelings.  Who,  at  first  sight,  does  not 
dislike  the  thoughts  of  gentlemen  and  clergymen 
depending  for  their  maintenance  and  thoir  reputa- 
tion on  their  flocks  ?  of  their  strength,  as  a  visible 
power,  lying,  not  in  their  birth,  the  patronage  of  the 
great,  or  the  endowments  of  the  Church,  as  hitherto, 
but  in  the  homage  of  a  multitude  ?  But,  in  truth, 
the  prospect  is  not  so  bad  as  it  seems  at  first  sight. 
The  chief  and  obv'ous  objection  to  the  clergy  being 
thrown  on  the  people,  lies  in  the  probable  lowering 
of  Christian  views,  and  the  adulation  of  the  vulgar, 
which  would  be  its  consequence  ;  and  the  state  of 
dissenters  is  appealed  to  as  an  evidence  of  the  dan- 


62 

ger.  But  let  us  recollect  that  we  are  an  Apostolical 
body ;  we  were  not  made,  nor  can  be  unmade,  by 
our  flocks ;  and,  if  our  influence  is  to  depend  on 
them,  yet  the  Sacrament*  reside  with  us.  We  have 
that  with  us,  which  none  but  ourselves  possess,  the 
mautle  of  the  Apostles ;  and  this,  properly  under- 
stood and  cherished,  will  ever  keep  us  from  being 
the  creatures  of  a  population."* 

Here  then  was  a  challenge  to  the  nation  to  decide 
between  the  movement  and  its  opponents ;  and  how 
did  the  nation  meet  it  ?  When  clergymen  of  Lati- 
tudinarian  thjology  were  promoted  to  dignities,  did 
the  faithful  of  the  diocese,  or  of  the  episcopal  city, 
rise  in  insurrection?  Did  paiishioners  blockade  a 
church's  doors  to  keep  out  a  new  incumbent,  who 
refused  to  read  the  Athanasian  Creed  ?  Bid  vestries 
feel  an  instinctive  reverence  for  the  altar,  as  soon  as 
that  reverence  was  preached?  Did  the  organs  of 
public  opinion  pursue  with  their  invectives  tho^e  who 
became  dissenters  or  Irvingites  ?  Was  it  a  subject 
of  popular  indignation,  discussed  and  denounced  in 
railway  trains  and  omnibusses  and  steamboats,  in 
clubs  and  shops,  in  episcopal  charges,  and  at  visita- 
tion dinners,  if  a  clergyman  explained  away  the  bap- 
tismal service,  or  professed  his  intention  to  leave  out 
portions  of  it  in  ministration  ?  Did  it  rouse  the 
guards  or  the  artillery  to  find  that  the  Bishop  where 


*  Church  of  the  Fathers. 


63 

they  were  stationed  was  a  Sabellian  ?  Was  it  a  sub- 
ject for  public  meetings  if  a  recognition  was  at- 
tempted of  foreign  Protestant  ordinations  ?  Did 
animosity  to  heretics  of  the  day  go  so  far  as  to  lead 
speakers  to  ridicule  their  persons  and  their  features, 
amid  the  cheers  of  sympathetic  hearers  ?  Did  pe- 
titions load  the  tables  of  the  Commons  from  the 
mothers  of  England  or  young  men's  associations, 
because  the  Q.ieen  went  to  a  Presbyterian  service, 
or  a  high  minister  of  state  was  an  infidel  ?  Did  the 
Bishops  cry  out  and  stop  their  ears  on  hearing  that 
one  of  their  body  denied  original  sin  or  the  grace  of 
ordination?  Was  there  nothing  in  the  course  of  the 
controversy  to  show  what  the  nation  thought  of  the 
controversy  ?  .  .  .  .  Yes,  I  hear  a  cry  from  ah 
episcopal  city ;  I  have  before  my  eyes  one  scene, 
and  it  is  a  type  and  earnest  of  many  more.  Once 
in  a  way,  there  were  those  among  the  authorities  of 
the  Establishment  who  made  certain  recommenda- 
tions concerning  the  mode  of  conducting  Divine 
worship :  simple  these  in  themselves,  and  perfectly 
innocuous,  but  they  looked  like  the  breath,  the 
shadow  of  the  movement,  they  seemed  an  omen  of 
something  more  to  come ;  they  were  the  symptoms 
of  some  sort  of  ecclesiastical  favor  bestowed  on  its 
adherents.  The  newspapers,  the  organs  of  the  po- 
litical, mammon-loving  community,  of  those  vast 
multitudes  in  all  ranks,  who  are  allowed  by  the 
Anglican  Church  to  do  nearly  what  they  will  for  six, 


64 

if  not  seven  days  in  the  week,  who,  in  spite  of  the 
theological  controversies  rolling  over  their  heads, 
could  buy  and  sell  and  manufacture  and  trade  at 
their  pleasure  ;  who  might  be  unconcerned,  if  they 
would,  and  go  their  own  way,  and  "  live  and  let 
live,"  the  organs,  I  say,  of  these  multitudes,  kindle 
with  indignation,  and  menace,  and  revile,  and  de- 
nounce, because  the  Bishops  in  question  suffer  their 
clergy  to  deliver  their  sermons,  as  well  as  the  pray- 
ers, in  a  surplice.  It  becomes  a  matter  of  popular 
interest.  There  are  mobs  in  the  street,  houses  are 
threatened,  life  is  in  danger,  because  only  the  gleam 
of  Apostolical  principles,  in  their  faintest,  wannest 
expression,  is  cast  inside  a  building  which  is  the 
home  of  the  national  religion.  The  very  moment 
that  Catholicism  ventures  out  of  books,  and  cloisters, 
and  studies,  towards  the  national  house  of  prayer, 
when  it  lifts  its  hand,  or  its  very  eyebrow  towards 
this  people  so  tolerant  of  heresy,  at  once  the  dull 
and  earthly  mass  is  on  fire.  It  would  be  little  or 
nothing,  though  the  minister  baptized  without  water, 
though  he  gave  away  the  consecrated  wine,  though 
he  denounced  fasting,  though  he  laughed  at  virginity, 
though  he  interchanged  pulpits  with  a  Wesleyan  or 
Baptist,  though  he  defied  his  Bishop  ;  he  might  be 
blamed,  he  might  be  disliked,  he  might  be  remon- 
strated with ;  but  he  would  not  touch  the  feelings 
of  men  ;  he  would  not  inflame  their  minds ;  but, 
bring  home  to  them  the  very  thought  of  Catholicism, 


65 

hold  up  a  surplice,  and  the  religious  building  is  as 
full  of  excitement  and  tumult  as  St.  Victor's  at 
Milan,  in  the  causa  of  orthodoxy,  or  St.  Giles's, 
Edinburgh,  for  the  Kirk. 

"  The  uproar  commenced,"  says  a  contemporary 
account,  "  with  a  general  coughing  down ;  several 
persons  then  moved  to  the  door,  makiug  a  great 
noise  in  their  progress  ;  a  young  woman  went  off  in 
a  fit  of  hysterics,  uttering  loud  shrieks,  whilst  a  mob 
outside  besieged  the  doors  of  the  building.  A  cry 
of  '  fire'  was  raised,  followed  by  an  announcement 
that  the  church  doors  were  closed,  and  a  rush  was 
made  to  burst  them  open.  Some  cried  out,  '  Turn 
him  out,'  '  pull  it  off  him.'  Tn  the  galleries  the 
uproar  was  at  its  height,  whistling,  cat  calls,  hurrah"* 
ing  and  such  cries  as  are  heard  in  theatres,  echoed 
throughout  the  edifice.  The  preacher  stiP  persisted 
to  read  his  text,  but  was  quite  inaudible  ;  and  the 
row  increased,  some  of  the  congregation  waving 
their  hats,  standing  on  the  seats,  jumping  over 
them,  bawling,  roaring,  and  gesticulating,  like  a  mob 
at  an  election.  The  reverend  gentleman,  in  the 
midst  of  the  confusion,  despatched  a  message  to  the 
mayor,  requesting  his  assistance,  when  one  of  the 
congregation  addressed  the  people,  and  also  request- 
ed the  preacher  to  remove  the  cause  of  the  ill-feeling 
which  had  been  excited.  Then  another  addressed 
him  in  no  measured  terms,  and  insi>ted  on  his  leaving 
the  pulpit.     At  length  the  mayor,  the  superintendent 


66 

of  the  police,  several  constables,  also  the  chancellor 
and  the  archdeacon,  arrived.  The  mayor  enforced 
silence,  and,  after  admonishing  the  people,  requested 
the  clergyman  to  leave  the  pulpit  for  a  few  minutes, 
which  he  declined  to  do, — gave  out  his  text,  and 
proceeded  with  his  discourse.  The  damage  done  to 
the  interior  of  the  church  is  said  to  be  very  con- 
siderable." I  believe  I  am  right  in  supposing  that 
the  surplice  has  vanished  from  that  pulpit  fiom  that 
day  forward.  Here  at  length  certainly  are  signs  of 
life,  but  not  the  life  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

And  now  to  draw  my  conclusion  from  what  I  have 
been  following  out,  if  I  have  not  sufficiently  done  so 
already.  If,  my  brethren,  your  reason,  your  faith, 
your  affections,  are  indissolubly  bound  up  with  the 
holy  principles  which  you  have  been  taught,  if  you 
know  they  are  true,  if  you  know  their  life  and  their 
power,  if  you  know  that  nothing  else  is  true ;  surely 
you  have  no  portion  or  sympathy  with  systems  which 
reject  them.  Seek  them  in  their  true  home.  If 
your  Church  rejects  your  principles,  it  rejects  you ; 
nor  dream  of  indocti  mating  it  with  them  by  remain- 
ing ;  everything  has  its  own  nature,  and  that  nature 
is  its  identity.  You  cannot  change  your  Establish- 
ment into  a  Church  without  a  miracle.  It  is  what 
it  is,  and  you  have  no  means  of  acting  upon  it ;  you 
have  not  what  Archimedes  looked  for  when  he  would 
move  the  world,  the  fulcrum  of  his  lever,  while  you 
are  one  with  it      It  acts  on  you,  while  you  act  on  it ; 


67 

you  cannot  employ  it  against  itself.  If  you  would 
make  England  Catholic,  you  must  go  forth  on  your 
mission  from  the  Catholic  Church  ;  you  have  duties 
to  the  Establishment,  it  is  the  duty,  not  of  owning 
its  rule,  but  of  converting  its  members.  0  my 
brethren,  life  is  short,  waste  it  not  in  vanities; 
dream  not ;  halt  not  between  two  opinions ;  wake 
from  a  dream  in  which  you  are,  not  profiting  your 
neighbor,  but  imperilling  your  own  souls. 


LECTURE  IJI. 

LIFE    IN     THE    MOVEMENT    OF     1833     NOT    FROM    THE 
NATIONAL    CHURCH. 

I  am  proposing,  my  brethren,  in  these  Lectures, 
to  answer  several  of  the  objections  which  are  urged 
against  quitting  the  National  Communion  for  the 
Catholic  Church.  It  has  been  a  very  common  and 
natural  idea  of  those  who  belong  to  the  movement 
of  1833,  as  it  was  the  idea  of  its  originators,  that, 
the  Nation  being  on  its  way  to  give  up  revealed 
truth,  all  those  who  wished  to  receive  that  truth  in 
its  fulness,  and  to  resist  its  enemies,  were  called  on 
to  make  use  of  the  National  Church,  to  which  they 
belonged,  whose  formularies  they  received,  as  their 
instrument  for  that  purpose.  I  answer  them,  that 
their  attempt  is  hopeless,  because  the  National 
Church  is  strictly  part  of  the  Nation,  in  the  same 
way  that  the  Law  or  the  Parliament  is  part  of  the 
Nation,  and  therefore,  as  the  Nation  changes,  so  will 


69 

the  National  Church  change.  That  Church,  then, 
cannot  be  used  against  the  spirit  of  the  age,  except 
as  a  drag  on  a  wheel  ;  for  nothing  can  really  resist 
the  Nation,  except  what  stands  on  an  independent 
basis.  It  must  say  and  will  say,  just  what  the  Na- 
tion says,  though  it  may  be  some  time  in  saving  it 
Next,  having  thus  shown  that  the  National  Church 
is  absolutely  one  with  the  Nation,  I  proceeded  fur- 
ther to  show  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  National 
Church  is  absolutely  heterogeneous  to  the  Apostoli- 
cal or  Anglo-Catholic  party  of  1833  ;  so  that,  while 
the  National  Church  is  part  of  the  Nation,  the 
movement,  on  the  contrary,  has  no  part  or  place  in 
the  National  Church.  To  aim  then  at  making  the 
Nation  Catholic  by  means  of  the  Church  of  England 
was  something  like  evangelizing  Turkey  by  means 
of  Islamism ;  and,  as  the  Turks  would  feel  serious 
resentment  at  hearing  the  Gospel  in  the  mouths  of 
their  Muftis  and  Mollabs,  so  was,  and  is,  the  English 
Nation  provoked,  not  persuaded,  by  Catholic  preach- 
ing in  the  Establishment. 

And  I  rest  the  proof  of  these  two  statements  on 
incontrovertible  facts  g"ing  on  during  the  last  twenty 
years,  and  now  before  our  eyes ;  for,  first,  the  Na- 
tional Church  has  changed  and  is  changing  with  the 
Nation,  and  secondly,  the  Nation  and  Church  have 
been  indignant,  and  are  indignant,  with  the  move- 
ment of  1833.  I  conceive,  that,  except  in  imagi- 
nation and  in  hope,  there  are  no  symptoms  whatever 


TO 

of  the  National  Church  preventing  those  changes 
of  progress,  as  they  are  called,  whether  in  the 
Nation  or  in  itself,  though  it  may  retard  them;  nor 
any  symptoms  whatever  of  its  welcoming  those 
backward  changes,  to  which  it  is  invited  under  the 
name  of  primitive  and  Apostolical  truth.  The 
National  Church  is  the  slave  of  the  Nation  and  the 
opponent  of  the  movement,  which  has  done  no  more 
than  form  a  party  in  the  one  to  the  annoyance  of  the 
other. 

And  now  I  come  to  a  second  objection,  which 
shall  be  my  subject  to-day.  An  inquirer  then  may 
say,  "  This  is  a  very  unfair  and  one- sided  view  of 
the  matter.  I  grant,  indeed,  I  cannot  deny,  that 
the  movement  has  but  formed  a  party  in  the  Na- 
tional Church.  I  grant  it  has  no  hold  on  the 
Church,  that  it  does  not  coalesce  with  it,  that  it 
hangs  loose  of  it ;  nay,  I  grant  that  this  want  of 
congeniality  comes  out  clearer  and  clearer  year  by 
year,  so  that  the  Anglican  party  has  never  appeared 
more  distinct  from  the  Establishment,  and  foreign  to 
it,  than  at  this  moJient,  when  State,  and  Bishops, 
and  people  have  cast  it  off,  and  its  efforts,  whether 
to  alter  the  constitution  of  the  Establishment,  or  to 
preserve  its  doctrine,  have  failed  and  are  failing.  I 
grant  all  this ;  I  am  forced  in  fairness  to  grant  it* 
or  rather,  it  will  be  taken  for  granted  by  all  men 
without  my  granting.  But  still,  so  far  is  undeniable, 
that  that  movement  of  1833  issued  forth  from  the 


n 

National  Church ;  this  at  least  is  an  incontrovertible 
fact :  whatever  light,  life,  or  strength  it  has  pos- 
sessed, or  possesses,  from  the  National  Church  was 
it  derived.  To  the  Sacraments,  to  the  ordinances, 
to  the  teaching  of  the  National  Church  it  owes  its 
being  and  its  continuauce;  and,  if  it  be  its  off- 
spring, it  belongs  to  it,  it  is  cognate  to  it,  and  can- 
not be  really  alien  to  it;  and  great  sin  and  unduti- 
fulness.  ingratitude,  presumption,  and  cruelty,  there 
must  be  in  leaving  it."  This  is  a  consideration 
which  is  urged  with  great  force  against  affectionate 
and  diffident  minds,  and  becomes  an  insurmountable 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  their  joining  the  Catholic 
Church.  It  is  pressed  upon  them  : — "  The  National 
Church  is  the  Church  of  your  baptism,  ana  therefore 
to  leave  it,  is  to  abandon  your  Mother."  Now  then 
let  us  examine  what  is  the  real  state  of  the  case. 

We  see  then  certainly,  a  multitude  of  persons  all 
over  the  country,  who,  in  the  course  of  the  last 
twenty  years,  have  been  roused  to  a  religious  life  by 
the  influence  of  principles  professing  to  be  those  of 
the  Primitive  Church,  and  put  forth  by  the  National 
Clergy.  Every  year  has  added  to  their  number ; 
nor  has  it  been  a  mere  profession  of  opinion  which 
they  took  up,  or  an  exercise  of  the  intellect ;  not  a 
fashion  or  Taste  of  the  hour,  but  a  rule  of  life. 
They  have  subjected  their  wills,  they  have  chastened 
their  hearts,  they  have  subdued  their  affections, 
they  have  submitted  their  reason.     Devotions,  com- 


n 

tnunions,  fastings,  privations,  almsgiving,  pious 
munificence,  self- denying  occupations,  have  marked 
the  spread  of  the  principles  in  question  ;  which  have 
moreover  been  adorned  and  recommended  in  those 
who  adopted  them  by  a  consistency,  grace,  and  re- 
finement of  conduct,  no  where  else  to  be  found  in 
the  National  Church.  Such  are  the  characteristics 
of  the  party  in  question  ;  and,  moreover,  its  mem- 
bers themselves  expressly  attribute  th  ir  advance- 
ment in  the  religious  life  to  the  use  ot  the  ordi- 
nances of  their  own  communion.  They  have  found, 
they  say,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that,  as  they  attended 
them,  they  became  more  strong  in  obedience  and 
dutifulness,  had  more  power  over  their  passions, 
and  more  love  towards  God  and  man.  '  "  If  then," 
they  may  urge,  "  you  confront  us  with  these  ex- 
ternal facts,  which  have  formed  the  subjects  of  your 
first  and  second  Lectures,  here  are  our  internal 
facts  to  meet  them ;  our  own  experience,  serious, 
sober,  practical,  outweighs  a  hundred-fold  repre- 
sentations which  may  be  logical,  dazzling,  irrefraga- 
ble ;  but  which  still,  as  we  ourselves  know  better 
than  any  one,  whatever  be  the  real  explanation  of 
them,  are  fallacious  and  untrue." 

Here  then  we  are  brought  to  the  question  of  the 
internal  evidence,  which  is  alleged  in  favor  of  a  real, 
however  recondite,  connexion  of  the  (so-called) 
Anglo- Catholic  party  with  the  National  Church. 
It  is  said,  that,  however  you  are  to  account  for  it, 


73 

there  is  the  fact  of  a  profound  intimate  relationship, 
a  spiritual  bond,  between  the  one  and  the  other ; 
that  party  has  risen  out  of  what  seems  so  earthly,  so 
inconsistent,  so  feeble,  and  is  sustained  by  it ;  and, 
in  fact,  does  but  illustrate  the  great  maxim  of  the 
Gospel,  that  the  weak  shall  be  strong,  and  the  de- 
spised shall  be  glorious.  Taking  their  stand  in  this 
evangelical  promise  and  principle,  the  persons  of 
whom  I  speak  are*  quite  careless  of  argument,  which 
silences  without  touching  them.  Their  opponents 
may  triumph,  if  they  will ;  but,  after  all,  there  cer- 
tainly must  be  some  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 
difficulties  of  their  position,  if  they  knew  what  it 
Was.  The  question  is  deeper  than  argument,  and  it 
is  very  easy  to  be  captious  and  irreverent.  It  is  not 
to  be  handled  by  intellect  and  talent,  or  decided  by 
logic.  They  are  in  a  very  anomalous  state  of  things, 
a  state  of  transition ;  they  must  submit  for  a  time 
to  be  without  a  theory  of  the  Church,  without  an 
intellectual  basis  on  which  to  plant  themselves.  It 
would  be  an  utter  absurdity  for  them  to  leave  the 
E>tablishment,  merely  because  they  do  not  at  the 
moment  see  how  to  defend  their  staying.  Such  ac- 
cidents will  happen  in  large  and  complicated  ques- 
tions ;  they  have  light  enough  to  guide  them  prac- 
tically, first,  because  even  though  they  wished  to 
move  ever  so  much,  they  see  no  place  to  move  into ; 
•and,  next,  because,  however  it  comes  to  pass,  how- 
ever contrary  it  may  be  to  scientific  rule,  to  Apos- 

4 


74 

ties,  Scripture,  Fathers,  Saints,  common  sense,  and 
the  simplest  principles  of  reason,  they  are,  in  matter 
of  fact,  abundantly  blest  where  they  are.  Certainly 
it  is  vexatious  that  the  Privy  Council  should  have 
decided  as  it  has  done ;  vexatious,  not  to  know  what 
to  say  about  the  decision ;  vexatious,  inconvenient, 
perplexing,  but  nothing  more.  It  is  not  a  real  diffi- 
culty, but  only  an  annoyance,  to  be  obliged  to  say 
something  to  quiet  their  people,  and  not  to  have  a 
notion  what.  However,  they  must  do  their  best ; 
and,  though  it  is  true,  they  find  that  one  of  their 
friends  uses  one  argument,  another  another,  and 
these  are  inconsistent  with  one  another,  still  that  is 
an  accidental  misery  of  their  position,  and  it  will  not 
last  for  ever.  Brighter  times  are  coming;  mean- 
while, they  must,  with  resignation,  suffer  the  shame, 
scorn  of  man,  and  distrust  of  friends,  which  is  their 
present  portion ;  a  little  patience,  and  the  night  will 
be  over ;  their  Athanasius  will  come  at  length,  to 
defend  and  to  explain  the  truth,  and  their  present 
constancy  will  be  their  future  reward. 

Now,  as  I  have  no  desire  to  imitate  a  line  of  con- 
duct which  I  cannot  approve,  I  will  not  follow  them 
in  leaving  the  question  unsettled  :  I  will  not  content 
myself  with  insisting  upon  the  external  view  of  the 
subject,  which  is  against  them,  leaving  them  in  pos- 
session of  that  argument  from  the  inward  evidences 
of  grace,  on  which  they  especially  rely.  I  have  no 
intention  at  all  of  evading  their  position, — I  mean 


75 

to  attack  it,  I  feel  intimately  what  is  true  in  it,  and 
I  feel  where  it  halts ;  so,  to  state  their  arguments 
fairly,  I  will  not  extemporize  words  of  my  own,  but 
I  will  express  it  in  the  language  of  a  writer,  who, 
when  he  used  it,  belonged  to  the  Established  Church. 
"  Surely,"  he  says,  u  as  the  only  true  religion  is 
that  which  is  seated  within  us,  a  matter,  not  of 
words,  but  of  things ;  so  the  only  satisfactory  test  of 
religion  is  something  within  us.  If  religion  be  a 
personal  matter,  its  reasons  also  should  be  personal. 
Wherever  it  is  present,  in  the  world  or  in  the  heart, 
it  produces  an  effect,  and  that  effect  is  its  evidence- 
When  we  view  it  as  set  up  in  rhe  world,  it  has  its 
external  proofs,  when  as  set  up  in  our  hearts,  it* has 
its  internal ;  and  that  whether  we  are  able  to  elicit 
them  ourselves,  and  put  them  into  shape  or  not. 
Nay,  with  some  little  limitation  and  explanntu  n 
it  might  be  said,  that  the  very  fact  of  a  religion 
taking  root  within  us,  is  a  proof,  so  far,  that  it  is 
true.  If  it  were  not  true  it  would  not  take  root. 
Religious  men  have,  in  their  own  religiousness,  an 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  their  religion.  That  reli- 
gion is  true  which  has  power,  and  so  far  as  it  has 
power ;  nothing  but  what  is  divine  can  renew  the 
heart.  And  this  is  the  secret  reason  why  religious 
men  believe,  whether  they  are  adequately  conscious 
of  it  or  no,  whether  they  can  put  it  into  words  or 
no;  viz.,  their  past  experience  that  the  doctrine 
which  they  hold  is  a  reality  in  their  minds,  not  a 


76 

mere  opinion,  and  has  come  to  them,  i  not  in  word*, 
but  in  power.'  And  in  this  sense  the  presence  of 
religion  in  us  is  its  own  evidence."* 

Again,— 

"  If,  then,-  We  are  asked  for  i  a  reason  of  the  hope 
that  is  in  us,'  why  we  are  content,  or  rather  thank- 
ful, to  be  in  that  Church,  in  which  God's  providence 
has  placed  us,  would  not  the  reasons  be  some  or 
other  of  these,  or  rather  all  of  them,  and  a  number 
of  others  besides,  which  these  may  suggest,  deeper 
than  they  ? 

a  1.  I  suppose  a  religious  man  is  conscious  that 
God  has  been  with  him,  and  given  him  whatever  he 
has  of  good  within  him.  He  knows  quite  enough  of 
himself  to  know  how  fallen  he  is  from  original 
righteousness,  and  he  has  a  conviction,  which  no- 
thing can  shake,  that  without  the  aid  of  his  Lord 
and  Saviour,  he  can  do  nothing  aright.  I  do  not  say 
he  need  recollect  any  definite  season  when  he  turned 
to  God,  and  gave  up  the  service  ©f  sin  and  Satan ; 
but  in  one  sense,  every  season,  every  year  is  such  a 
time  of  turning.  I  mean,  he  ever  has  experience, 
just  as  if  he  had  hitherto  been  living  to  the  world, 
of  a  continual  conversion ;  he  is  ever  taking  advan- 
tage of  holy  seasons  and  new  providences,  and  be- 
ginning again.  The  elements  of  sin  are  still  alive 
within  him ;  they  still  tempt  and  influence  him,  and 


*  Newman's  Sermons  of  the  Day,  pp.  390,  39 L 


77 

threaten  when  they  do  no  more ;  and  it  is  only  by  a 
continual  fight  against  them  that  he  prevails ;  and 
what  shall  persuade  him  that  his  power  to  fight  is  his 
own,  and  not  from  above  ?  And  this  conviction  of 
a  divine  presence  with  him  is  stronger,  according  to 
the  length  of  time  during  which  he  has  served  G-od, 
and  to  his  advance  in  holiness.  The  multitude  of 
men,  nay,  a  great  number  of  those  who  think  them- 
selves religious,  do  not  aim  at  holiness,  and  do  not 
advance  in  holiness ;  but  consider  what  a  great  evi- 
dence it  is  that  God  is  with  us,  so  far  as  we  have  it. 
Religious  men,  really  such,  cannot  but  recollect  in 
the  course  of  years,  that  they  have  become  very 
different  from  what  they  were.  In  the  course  of 
years  a  religious  person  finds  that  a  mysterious  un- 
seen influence  has  been  upon  him  and  changed  him. 
He  is  indeed  very  different  from  what  he  was.  His 
tastes,  his  views,  his  judgments  are  different.  You 
will  say  that  time  changes  a  man  us  a  matter  of 
course  ;  advancing  age,  outward  circumstances,  trials, 
experience  of  life.  It  is  true;  and  yet  I  think  a 
religious  man  would  feel  it  little  less  than  sacrilege, 
and  almost  blasphemy,  to  impute  the  improvement 
in  his  heart  and  conduct,  in  his  moral  being,  with 
which  he  has  been  favored  in  a  certain  sufficient 
period,  to  outward  or  merely  natural  causes.  He 
will  be  unable  to  force  himself  to  do  so  ;  that  is  to 
say,  he  has  a  conviction,  which  it  is  a  point  of  reli- 
gion with  him  not  to  doubt,  which  it  is  a  sin  to  deny, 


78 

that  God  has  been  with  him.  And  this  is,  of  course, 
a  ground  of  hope  to  him  that  God  will  be  with  him 
still;  and  if  he,  at  any  time,  faM  into  religious  per- 
plexity, it  may  serve  to  comfort  him  to  think  of  it."* 

And  again, — 

"  I  might  go  on  to  mention  a  still  more  solemn 
subject,  viz.,  the  experience  which,  at  least,  certain 
religious  persons  have  of  the  awful  sacredness  of  our 
sacraments  and  other  ordinances.  If  these  are  at- 
tended by  the  presence  of  Christ,  surely  we  have  all 
that  a  Church  can  have  in  the  way  of  privilege  and 
blessing.  The  promise  runs,  '  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.'  That  is  a 
Church  where  Christ  is  present ;  this  is  the  very 
definition  of  the  Church.  The  question  sometimes 
asked  is,  Whether  our  services,  our  holy  seasons, 
our  rites,  our  sacraments,  our  institutions,  really 
have  with  them  the  presence  of  Him  who  thus  pro- 
mised ?  If  so,  we  are  part  of  the  Church  ;  if  not, 
then  we  are  but  performers  in  a  sort  of  scene  or 
pa<2;eaut,  which  may  be  religiously  intended,  and 
which  God  in  His  mercy  may  visit ;  but  if  He  visits, 
will  in  visiting  go  beyond  His  own  promise.  But 
observe,  as  if  to  answer  to  the  challenge,  and  put 
herself  on  trial,  and  to  give  us  a  test  of  her  Catho- 
licity, our  Church  bollly  declares  of  her  most  solemn 
ordinance,  that  he  who  profanes  it  incurs  the  danger 


*  Ibid,  pp.  394,  396. 


79 

of  judgment.  She  seems,  like  Moses,  or  the  Pro- 
phet from  Judah,  or  Elijah,  to  put  her  claim  to 
issue,  not  so  openly,  yet  as  really,  upon  the  fulfil- 
ment of  a  certain  specified  sign.  Now  she  does  not 
speak  to  scare  away  the  timid,  but  to  startle  and 
subdue  the  unbelieving,  and  withal  to  assure  the 
wavering  and  perplexed  ;  and  I  conceive  that  in  such 
measure  as  God  wills,  and  as  is  known  to  God,  these 
effects  follow.  I  mean,  that  we  really  have  proofs 
among  us,  though,  for  the  most  part,  they  will  be 
private  and  personal,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
of  clear  punishment  coming  upon  profanations  of 
the  holy  ordinance  in  question ;  sometimes  very 
fearful  instances,  and  such  as  serve,  while  they  awe 
beholders,  to  comfort  them; — to  comfort  them,  for 
it  is  plain,  if  God  be  with  us  for  judgment,  surely 
He  is  with  us  for  mercy  also  :  if  He  punishes,  why 
is  it  but  for  profanation?  And  how  can  there  be 
profanation,  if  there  is  nothing  to  be  profaned  ? 
Surely  He  does  not  manifest  His  wrath,  but  where 
He  has  first  vouchsafed* His  grace."* 

I  might  quote  much  more  to  the  same  purpose ; 
if  I  do  not,  it  is  not  that  I  fear  the  force  of  the  ar- 
gument, but  the  length  to  which  it  runs. 

Now  in  this  preference  of  internal  evidences  to 
those  which  are  simply  outward,  there  is  a  great 
principle  of  truth.     It  requires  much  guarding,  in- 


*  Ibid,  pp.  400,401. 


39 

deed,  and  explaining;  but  I  suppose  in  matter  of 
fact,  that  the  notes  of  the  Church,  as  they  are  called, 
are  chiefly  intended,  as  this  writer  says,  as  guides 
and  directions  into  the  truth,  for  those  who  are  as 
yet  external  to  it,  and  that  those  who  are  within  it 
have  prima  facie  evidences  of  another  and  more 
personal  kind.  I  grant  it,  and  I  make  use  of  my 
admission ;  for  one  inward  evidence  at  J  east  Catho- 
lics have,  which  this  writer  had  not — certainty;  I 
do  not  say,  of  course,  that  what  seems  like  certainty 
is  a  sufficient  evidence  to  an  individual  that  he  has 
found  the  truth,  for  he  may  mistake  obstinacy  or 
blindness  for  certainty  ;  but,  at  any  rate,  the  absence 
of  certainty  is  a  clear  proof  that  a  person  has  not 
yet  found  it, — and  at  least  a  Catholic  knows  well, 
even  if  he  cannot  urge  it  in  argument,  that  the 
Church  is  able  to  communicate  to  him  that  gift. 
Now  no  one  can  read  the  series  of  arguments  from 
which  I  have  quoted,  without  being  struck  by  the 
author's  clear  avowal  of  doubt,  in  spite  of  his  own 
reasonings,  on  the  serious  subject  which  is  engaging 
his  attention.  He  longed  to  have  faith  in  the  Na- 
tional Church,  and  he  could  not.  "  What  want  we," 
he  exclaims,  "  hut  faith  in  our  Church  ?  With  faith 
we  can  do  every  thing;  without  faith  we  can  do 
nothing."*  So  all  these  inward  notes  which  he 
enumerates,  whatever  their  prima  facie  force,  did 


*  Ibid,  p.  430. 


81 

not  reach  so  far  as  to  implant  even  conviction  in  his 
own  breast ;  they  did  not,  after  all,  prove  to  him 
that  connexion  between  the  National  Church  and  the 
spiritual  gifts  which  he  recognised  in  his  party, 
which  he  fain  would  have  established,  and  which 
they  would  fain  establish  to  whom  I  am  now  ad- 
dressing myself. 

But  to  come  to  the  gifts  themselves.  You  tell 
me,  my  brethren,  that  you  have  the  clear  evidence 
of  the  influences  of  grace  in  your  hearts,  by  its 
effects  sensible  at  the  moment  or  permanent  in  the 
event.  You  tell  me,  that  you  have  been  converted 
from  sin  to  holiness,  or  that  you  have  received  great 
support  and  comfort  under  trial,  or  that  you  have 
been  carried  over  very  special  temptations,  though 
you  have  not  submitted  yourselves  to  the  Catholic 
Church.  More  than  this,  you  tell  me  of  the  peace, 
and  joy,  and  strength  which  you  have  experienced 
in  your  own  ordinances.  You  tell  me,  that  when 
you  began  to  go  weekly  to  communion,  you  found 
yourselves  wonderfully  advanced  in  purity.  You 
tell  me,  that  you  went  to  confession,  and  you  never 
will  believe  that  the  hand  of  Grod  was  not  over  you 
at  the  moment  when  you  received  absolution.  You 
were  ordained,  and  a  fragrance  breathed  around 
you ;  you  hung  over  the  dead,  and  you  all  but  saw 
the  happy  spirit  of  the  departed.  This  is  what  you 
say,  and  the  like  of  this ;  and  I  am  not  the  person, 
my  dear  brethren,  to  quarrel  with  the  truth  of  what 
4* 


98 

you  say.  I  am  not  the  person  to  be  jealous  of  such 
facts,  nor  to  wish  you  to  contradict  your  own  memory 
and  your  own  nature ;  nor  am  I  so  ungrateful  to 
God's  former  mercies  to  myself,  to  have  the  heart  to 
deny  them  in  you.  As  to  miracles  indeed,  if  such 
you  mean,  that  of  course  is  a  matter  which  might 
lead  to  dispute ;  but,  if  you  merely  mean  to  say, 
that  the  supernatural  grace  of  God,  as  shown  either 
at  the  time  or  by  consequent  fruits,  has  over- 
shadowed you  at  certain  times,  has  been  with  you 
when  you  were  taking  part  in  the  Anglican  ordi- 
nances, I  have  no  wish,  and  a  Catholic  has  no  anx- 
iety, to  deny  it. 

Why  should  I  deny  to  your  memory  what  is  so 
pleasant  in  mine  ?  Cannot  I  too  look  back  on  many 
years  past,  and  many  events,  in  which  I  myself  ex- 
perienced what  is  now  your  confidence  ?  Can  I 
forget  the  happy  life  I  have  led  all  my  days,  with  no 
cares,  no  anxieties  worth  remembering;  without 
desolateness,  or  fever  of  thought,  or  gloom  of  mind, 
or  doubt  of  God's  love  to  me  and  providence  over 
me  ?  Can  I  forget, — I  never  can  forget, — the  day 
when  in  my  youth  I  first  bound  myself  to  the  ministry 
of  God  in  that  old  church  of  St.  Frideswide,  the 
patroness  of  Oxford?  Nor  how  I  wept  most  abun- 
dant, and  most  sweet  tears,  when  I  thought  what  I 
then  had  become  ;  though  I  looked  on  it  then  as  no 
sacramental  rite,  nor  even  to  baptism  ascribed  any 
supernatural   virtue?     Can    I  wipe   out  from   my 


83 

memory,  or  wish  to  wipe  out,  those  happy  Sunday 
mornings,  light  or  dark,  year  after  year,  when  I 
celebrated  your  communion-rite  in  my  own  Church 
of  St.  Mary's ;  and  in  the  pleasantness  and  joy  of 
it  heard  nothing  of  the  strife  of  tongues  which  sur- 
rounded its  walls  ?  When,  too,  shall  I  not  feel  the 
soothing  recollection  of  those  dear  years  which  I 
spent  in  retirement,  in  preparation  for  my  delive- 
rance from  Egypt,  asking  for  light,  and  by  degrees 
gaining  it,  with  less  of  temptation  in  my  heart,  and 
sin  on  my  conscience,  than  ever  before  ?  0,  my 
dear  brethren,  my  Anglican  friends,  I  give  you 
credit  for  what  I  have  experienced  myself.  Pro- 
vided you  be  in  good  faith,  if  you  are  not  trifling 
with  your  conscience,  if  you  are  resolved  to  follow 
whithersoever  God  shall  lead,  if  the  ray  of  convic- 
tion has  not  fallen  on  you,  and  you  have  shut  your 
eyes  to  it ;  then,  anxious  as  I  am  about  you  for  the 
future,  and  dread  as  I  may  till  you  are  converted, 
that  perhaps,  when  conviction  comes,  it  will  come  in 
vain ;  yet  still,  looking  back  at  the  past  years  of 
your  life,  I  recognize  what  you  say,  and  bear  witness 
to  its  truth.  Yet  what  has  this  to  do  with  the  mat- 
ter in  hand  ?  I  admit  your  fact ;  do  you,  my  breth- 
ren, admit,  in  turn,  my  explanation  of  it  ?  It  is  the 
explanation  ready  provided  by  the  Catholic  Church, 
provided  in  her  general  teaching,  quite  independently 
of  your  particular  case,  not  made  for  the  occasion, 
only  applied  when  it  has  arisen ;  listen  to  it,  and  see 


84 

whether  you  admit  it  or  not  as  true,  if  it  be  not 
sufficiently  probable,  or  possible  if  you  will,  to  in- 
validate the  argument  on  which  you  so  confidently 
rely. 

Surely  you  ought  to  know  the  Catholic  teaching 
on  the  subject  of  grace,  in  its  bearing  on  your  ar- 
gument, without  my   insisting  on  it.     Spiritus  Do- 
mini replevit   orbem  terrarum.     Grace  is  given  for 
the  merits  of  Christ  all  over  the  earth ;  there  is  no 
corner,  even  of  Paganism,  where  it  is  not  present, 
present  in  each  heart  of  man  in  real  sufficiency  for 
his  ultimate  salvation.     Not  that  the  grace  presented 
to  each  is  such,  as  at  once  to   bring  him  to  heaven ; 
but  it  is  sufficient  for  a  beginning.     It  is  sufficient 
to  enable  him  to   plead  for  other  grace,  and  that 
second  grace  is  such  as  to  impetrate  a  third  grace ; 
and  thus  the  soul  is  led  on  from  grace  to  grace,  and 
from  strength  to  strength,  till  at  length  it  is,  so  to 
say,  in  very  sight  of  heaven,  if  the  gift  of  perse- 
verance does  but  complete  the  work.     Now  here 
observe,  it  is  not  certain  that  a  soul  which  has  the 
first  grace  will  have  the  second ;  the  grant  of  the 
second  depends  on  its  use  of  the  first.     Again,  it 
may  have  the  fir^t  and  second,  and  yet  not  the  third; 
or  from  the  first  on  to  the  nineteenth,  and  not  the 
twentieth.     We  mount  up  by  steps  towards  God, 
and,  alas !  it  is  possible  that  a  soul  may  be  coura- 
geous and  bear  up  for  nineteen  steps,  and  stop  and 
faint  at  the  twentieth.     Nay,  further  than  this,  a 


85 

soul  may  go  forward  till  it  arrives  at  the  very  grace 
of  contrition,  a  contrition  so  loving,  so  sin-renoun- 
cing, as  to  bring  it  at  once  into  a  state  of  reconcilia- 
tion, and  clothe  it  in  the  vestment  of  justice  ;  and 
yet  it  may  yield  to  the  further  trials  which  beset  it 
and  fall  away. 

Now  all  this  may  take  place  even  outside  the 
Church,  and  consider  what  at  once  follows  from  it. 
This  follows  in  the  first  place,  that  men  there  may 
be,  not  Catholics,  really  obeying  God  and  rewarded 
by  Him,  nay  in  His  favor,  with  their  sins  forgiven 
and  with  a  secret  union  with  that  heavenly  kingdom 
to  which  they  do  not  visibly  belong,  who  are,  through 
their  subsequent  failure,  never  to  reach  it.  There 
may  be  those  who  are  increasing  in  grace  and 
knowledge,  and  approaching  nearer  to  the  Catholic 
Church  every  year,  who  are  not  in  the  Church,  and 
never  will  be.  The  highest  gifts  and  graces  are 
compatible  with  ultimate  reprobation.  As  regards 
then  the  evidences  of  sanctity  in  members  of  the 
National  Establishment,  on  which  you  insist,  Catho- 
lics are  not  called  on  to  deny  them.  We  think  such 
instances  are  few,  nor  so  eminent  as  you  are  accus- 
tomed to  fancy;  but  we  do  not  wish  to  d<  ny,  nor 
have  any  difficulty  in  admitting,  such  facts  as  you 
havtf  to  adduce,  whatever  they  be.  We  do  not 
think  it  necessary  to  carp  at  every  instance  of  su- 
pernatural excellence  among  Protestants  when  it 
comes  before  us,  or  to  explain  it  away ;  all  we  know 


86 

is,  that  the  grace  given  them  is  intended  ultimately 
to  bring  them  into  the  Church,  and  if  it  does  not 
tend  to  do  so,  it  will  not  ultimately  profit  them ;  but 
we  as  little  deny  its  presence  in  their  souls  as  Pro- 
testants themselves,  and  as  the  fact  is  no  perplexity 
to  us,  it  is  no  triumph  to  them. 

And  secondly,  in  like  manner,  whatever  be  the 
comfort  or  the  strength  attendant  upon  the  use  of 
the  national  ordinances  in  the  case  of  this  or  that 
person,  a  Catholic  may  admit  it  without  scruple,  for 
it  is  no  evidence  to  him  in  behalf  of  those  ordinances 
themselves.  It  is  the  teaching  of  the  Catholic 
Church  from  time  immemorial,  and  independent  of 
the  present  controversy,  that  grace  is  given  in  a 
sacred  ordinance  in  two  ways,  viz.,  to  use  the  scho- 
lastic distinction,  ex  opere  operantis  and  ex  opere 
operato.  Grace  is  given  ex  opere  operato,  when,  the 
proper  dispositions  being  supposed  in  the  recipient,  it 
is  given  through  the  ordinance  ;  it  is  given  ex  opere 
operantis,  when,  whether  there  be  outward  sign  or 
no,  the  inward  energetic  act  of  the  recipient  is  the 
instrument  of  it.  Thus  Protestants  say  that  justi- 
fication, for  instance,  is  gained  by  faith  as  by  an 
instrument,  ex  opere  operantis ;  thus  Catholics  also 
'  commonly  believe,  that  the  benefit  arising  from  the 
use  of  holy  water  accrues,  not  ex  opere  operato,  or 
by  means  of  the  element  itself,  but  ex  opere  operan- 
tis,  through  the  devout  mental  act  of  the  person 
using  it,  and  the  prayers  of  the  Church.     So  again, 


87 

the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass  benefits  the  person  for 
whom  it  is  offered  ex  opere  operetta,  whatever  be  the 
character  of  the  celebrating  Priest ;  but  it  benefits 
him  more  or  less,  ex  opere  operantis,  according  to 
the  degree  of  sanctity  which  the  Priest  has  attained, 
and  the  earnestness  with  which  he  offers  it,  ■  Again, 
baptism,  whether  administered  by  man  or  woman, 
saint  or  sinner,  heretic  or  Catholic,  regenerates  an 
infant  ex  opere  operato ;  on  the  other  hand,  in  the 
case  of  the  baptism  of  blood,  as  it  was  called,  that 
is,  the  martyrdom  of  unbaptised  persons  desiring  the 
sacrament,  but  unable  to  obtain  it,  a  discussion  has 
arisen,  whether  the  martyr  was  justified  ex  opere 
operato  or  ex  opere  operantis,  that  is,  whetherjby 
the  physical  act  of  his  dying  for  the  faith,  considered 
in  itself,  or  by  the  mental  act  of  supreme  devotion 
to  God,  which  caused  and  attended  it.  So  again, 
contrition  of  a  certain  kind  is  sufficient  as  a  dispo- 
sition, or  condition,  or  matter  for  receiving  absolu- 
tion in  Penance  ex  opere  operato,  or  by  virtue  of 
the  sacrament;  but  it  may  be  heightened  and  puri- 
fied into  so  intense  an  act  of  divine  love,  of  hatred 
and  sorrow  for  sin,  and  of  renunciation  of  it,  as  to 
cleanse  and  justify  the  soul,  without  the  sacrament 
at  all,  ex  opere  operantis.  It  is  plain  from  this 
distinction,  that,  if  we  would  determine  whether  the 
Anglican  ordinances  are  attended  by  divine  grace, 
we  must  first  determine  whether  the  effects  which 
accompany  them  arise  ex  opere  operantis  or  ex  opere 


m 

operato — whether  out  of  the  religious  acts,  the 
prayers,  aspirations,  resolves  of  the  recipient,  or  by 
the  direct  power  of  the  ceremonial  act  itself,  a  nice 
and  difficult  question,  not  to  be  decided  by  means  of 
those  effects  themselves,  whatever  they  be. 

Let  me  grant  to  you  then,  that  the  reception  of 
your  ordinances  brings  peace  and  joy  to  the  soul; 
that  it  permanently  influences  or  changes  the  cha- 
racter of  the  recipient.  Let  me  grant,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  their  profanation,  when  men  have  been 
taught  to  believe  in  them,  and  in  profaning  are 
guilty  of  contempt  of  that  God  to  whom  they  as- 
cribe them,  is  attended  by  judgments  ;  this  properly 
shows  nothing  more  than  that,  by  a  general  law, 
lying,  deceit,  presumption,  or  hypocrisy  are  punished, 
and  prayer,  faith,  contrition,  rewarded.  There  is 
nothing  to  show  that  the  effects  would  not  have  been 
precisely  the  same  under  the  same  inward  disposi- 
tions, though  another  ordinance,  a  love-feast  or  a 
washing  the  foet,  with  no  pretence  to  the  name  of  a 
Sacrament,  had  in  good  faith  be<.n  adopted.  And 
it  is  obvious  to  any  one  that,  for  a  member  of  the 
Establishment  to  bring  himself  to  confession,  espe- 
cially some  years  back,  required  dispositions  of  a 
very  npycial  character,  a  special  contrition  and  a 
special  desire  of  the  Sacrament,  which,  as  far  as  we 
may  judge  by  outward  signs,  were  a  special  effect  of 
grace,  and  would  fittingly  receive  from  God's  bounty 
a  special  reward,  some  further  and  higher  grace,  or 


89 

even  remission  of  sins.  And  again,  when  a  member 
of  the  Establishment,  surrounded  by  those  who 
scoffed  at  the  doctrine,  accepted  God's  word  that 
He  would  make  Bread  His  Body,  and  honored  Him 
by  accepting  it,  is  it  wonderful,  is  it  not  suitable  to 
God's  mercy,  if  He  reward  such  a  special  faith  with 
a  quasi  sacramental  grace,  though  he  ignorantly 
offered  to  a  material  substance  that  adoration  which 
he  intended  to  pay  to  the  present,  but  invisible, 
Lamb  of  God  ? 

Bat  this  is  not  all,  my  dear  brethren  ;  I  must 
allow  to  others  what  T  allow  to  you.  If  I  let  you 
plead  the  sensible  effects  of  supernatural  grace,  as 
exemplified  in  yourselves,  in  proof  that  your  religion 
is  ferae,  I  must  allow  the  plea  to  others  to  whom  by 
your  theory  you  are  bound  to  deny  it.  Are  you 
willing  to  place  yourselves  on  the  same  footing  with 
Wesleyans?  yet  what  is  the  difference?  or  rather, 
have  they  not  more  remarkable  phenomena  in  their 
history,  symptomatic  of  the  presence  of  grace  among 
them,  than  you  can  show  in  yours  ?  Which  then  is 
the  right  explanation  of  your  feelings  and  your  ex- 
perience, mine,  which  I  have  extracted  from  re- 
ceived Catholic  teaching,  or  yours,  which  is  an 
expedient  for  the  occasion,  and  cannot  be  made  to 
tell  for  your  own  Apostolical  authority  without 
telling  for  those  who  are  rebels  against  it  ?  Survey 
the  rise  of  Methodism,  and  say  candidly,  whether 
those  who  made  light  of  your  ordinances,  abandoned 


90 

them,  or  at  least  disbelieved  their  virtue,  have  not 
had  among  them  evidences  of  that  very  same  grace 
which  you  claim  for  yourselves,  and  think  a  proof 
of  your  acceptance  with  Grod.  Really  I  am  obliged 
in  candor  to  allow,  whatever  part  the  evil  spirit  had 
in  the  work,  whatever  gross  admixture  of  earth  pol- 
luted it,  whatever  extravagance  there  was  to  excite 
ridicule  or  disgust,  whether  it  was  Christian  virtue, 
or  the  excellence  of  unaided  man,  whatever  was  the 
spiritual  state  of  the  subjects  of  it,  whatever  their 
end  and  their  final  account,  yet  there  were  higher 
and  nobler  vestiges  or  semblances  of  grace  and 
truth  in  Methodism  than  there  have  been  among 
you.  I  give  you  credit  for  what  you  are,  grave, 
serious,  earnest,  modest,  steady,  self-denying,  con- 
sistent ;  you  have  the  praise  of  such  virtues ;  and 
you  have  a  clear  perception  of  many  of  the  truths, 
or  of  portions  of  the  truths,  of  revelation.  In  these 
points  you  surpass  the  Wesleyans ;  but  if  I  wished 
to  find  what  was  striking,  extraordinary,  suggestive 
of  Catholic  heroism,  of  St.  Martin,  St.  Francis,  or 
St.  Ignatius,  I  should  betake  myself  far  sooner  to 
them  than  to  you.  "  In  our  own  times,"  says  a 
writer  in  a  popular  Review,  speaking  of  the  last 
mentioned  Saint  and  his  companions,  "  in  our  own 
times  much  indignation  and  much  alarm  are  thrown 
away  on  innovators  of  a  very  different  stamp.  From 
the  ascetics  of  the  common  room,  from  men  whose 
courage  rises  high  enough  only  to  hint  at  their  un- 


91 

popular  opinions,  and  whose  billigerent  passions  soar 
at  nothing  more  daring  than  to  worry  some  unfor- 
tunate professor,  it  is  almost  ludicrous  to  fear  any 
great  movement  on  the  theatre  of  human  affairs. 
When  we  see  these  dainty  gentlemen  in  rags,  and 
hear  of  them  from  the  snows  of  the  Himalaya,  we 
may  begin  to  tremble."  Now  such  a  diversion  from 
the  course  of  his  remarks  upon  St.  Ignatius  and  his 
companions,  I  must  say  was  most  uncalled  for,  in 
this  writer,  and  not  a  little  ill-natured ;  for  we  had 
never  pretended  to  be  heroes  at  all,  and  should  have 
been  the  first  to  laugh  at  any  one  who  fancied  us 
such  ;  but  they  will  serve  to  suggest  the  fact,  which 
is  undeniable,  that,  even  when  Anglicans  approach 
in  doctrine  nearest  to  the  Catholic  Church,  still 
heroism  is  not  the  line  of  their  excellence.  The 
Established  Church  may  have  preserved  in  the 
country  the  idea  of  sacramental  grace,  and  the 
movement  of  1833  have  spread  it;  but  if  you  wish 
to  find  the  shadow  and  the  suggestion  of  the  super- 
natural qualities  which  make  up  the  notion  of  a 
Catholic  Saint,  to  Wesley  you  must  go,  and  such  as 
him.  Personally,  I  do  not  like  him,  if  it  were 
merely  for  his  deep  self-reliance  and  self-conceit; 
still  I  am  bound,  in  justice  to  him,  to  ask,  and  you 
in  consistency  to  answer,  what  historical  personage 
in  the  Establishment,  during  its  whole  three  cen- 
turies, has  approximated  in  force  and  splendor  of 
conduct   and  achievements  to  one  who   began  by 


92 

innovating  on  your  rules,  and  ended  by  contemning 
your  authorities  ?  He  and  his  companions,  starting 
amid  ridicule  at  Oxford,  with  fasting  and  praying, 
in  the  cold  night  air,  then  going  about  preaching, 
reviled  by  the  rich  and  educated,  and  pelted  and 
dragged  to  prison  by  the  populace,  and  converting 
their  thousands  from  sin  to  God's  service — were  it 
not  for  their  pride  and  eccentricity,  and  fanatical 
doct  me  and  untranquil  devotion,  they  startle  us,  as 
if  the  times  of  St.  Viucent  Ferrer  or  St.  Francis 
Xavier  were  come  again  in  a  Protestant  land. 

Or,  to  tarn  to  other  communions,  whom  have  you 
with  the  capabilities  of  greatness  in  them,  which 
show  themselves  in  the  benevolent  zeal  of  Howard 
the  philanthropist,  or  Elizabeth  Fry?  Or  consider 
the  almost  miraculous  conversion  and  subsequent 
life  of  Col.  Gardiner.  Why,  even  old  Bunyan,with 
his  vivid  dreams  when  a  child,  his  conversion,  his 
conflict  with  Satan,  his  preachings  and  imprison- 
ments, however  interior  to  you  in  discipline  of  mind 
and  knowledge  of  the  truth,  is,  in  the  outline  of  his 
history,  more  Apostolical  than  you.  "  Weep  not 
for  me,'7  were  his  last  words,  as  if  he  had  been  a 
saint,  "  but  for  yourselves.  I  go  to  the  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  doubtless,  through  the 
mediation  of  His  Son,  will  receive  me,  though  a 
sinner,  when  we  shall,  ere  long,  meet,  to  sing  the 
new  song,  and  be  happy  for  ever."  Consider  the 
death-beds  of  the  thousands  of  those,  in  and  out  of 


n 

the  Establishment,  who,  with  scarcely  one  sentiment 
of  religion  in  common  with  you,  die  in  confidence 
of  the  truth  of  their  doctrine,  and  of  their  personal 
safety.  Does  the  peace  of  their  deaths  testify  to 
the  divinity  of  their  creed  or  of  their  communion? 
Does  the  extreme  earnestness  and  x  eality  of  religious 
feeling,  exhibited  in  the  sudden  seizure  and  death  of 
one,  who  was  as  stern  in  his  hatred  of  your  opinions, 
as  in  that  earnestness  of  feeling,  who  one  evening 
protested  against  the  sacramental  principle,  and  next 
morning  died  with  the  words  of  Holy  Scripture  in 
his  mouth — does  it  give  any  sanction  to  that  hatred 
and  that  protest  ?*  And  there  is  another,  a  Calvin- 
ist,  one  of  whose  special  and  continual  prayers  in  his 
last  illness  was  for  perseverance  in  grace,  who  cried, 
"  0  Lord,  abhor  me  not,  though  I  be  abhorrible, 
and  abhor  myself!"  And  who,  five  minutes  before 
his  death,  by  the  expression  of  his  countenance, 
changing  from  prayer  to  admiration  and  calm  peace, 
impressed  upon  the  bystanders,  that  the  veil  had 
been  removed  from  his  eyes,  and  that,  like  Stephen, 
he  saw  things  invisible  to  sense ; — -did  ha,  by  the 
circumstances  of  his  death-bed,  bear  evidence  to  the 
truth  of  what  you,  as  well  as  I,  hold  to  be  an  odious 
heresy  ?|  "  Mr  Harvey  resigned  his  meek  soul 
into  the  hands  of  his  Redeemer,  saying,  '  Lord,  now 
lettest  Thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace,'  "     "  Mr. 

*  Dr.  Arnold. 

t  Mr.  Scott. 


94 

Walker,  before  he  expired,  spoke  nearly  these  words  \ 
i  I  have  been  on  the  wings  of  the  cherubim ;  heaven 
has  in  a  manner  been  opened  to  me,  I  shall  be  there 
soon.'"  "Mr.  Whitfield  rose  at  four  o'clock  on 
the  Sabbath  day,  went  to  his  closet,  and  was  un- 
usually long  in  private  ;  laid  himself  on  his  bed  for 
about  ten  minutes ;  then  went  on  his  knees  and 
prayed  most  fervently  he  might  that  day  finish  his 
Master's  work."  Then  he  sent  for  a  clergyman^ 
"  and  before  he  could  reach  him,  closed  his  eyes  on 
this  world  without  a  sigh  or  groan,  and  commenced 
a  Sabbath  of  everlasting  rest."*  Alas !  there  was 
another,  who  for  three  months  "  lingered,"  as  he 
said,  "in  the  face  of  death."  "0  my  God,"  he 
cried,  "  I  know  Thou  dost  not  overlook  any  of  Thy 
creatures.  Thou  dost  not  overlook  me.  So  much 
torture  ...  to  kill  a  worm  !  have  mercy  on  me  !  I 
cry  to  Thee,  knowing  I  cannot  alter  Thy  ways.  I 
cannot,  if  I  would,  and  I  would  not  if  I  could.  If 
a  word  would  remove  these  sufferings,  I  would  not 
utter  it."  "  Just  life  enough  to  suffer,"  he  con- 
tinued, "  but  I  submit,  and  not  only  submit  but 
rejoice. "  One  morning  he  woke  up,  "  and  with 
firm  voice  and  great  sobriety  of  manner,  spoke  only 
these  words:  '  Now  I  die!'  He  sat  as  one  in  the 
attitude  of  expectation,  and  about  two  hours  after- 
wards, it  was  as  he  had  said."     x\nd  he  was  a  pro- 


*  Sidney's  Life  of  Hill. 


96 

fessed  infidel,  and  worse  than  an  infidel, — an  apostatd 
priest  I 

No,  my  dear  brethren,  these  things  are  beyond  us. 
Nature  can  do  so  much,  and  go  so  far,  can  form  such 
rational  notions  of  God  and  of  duty,  without  grace 
or  merit,  or  a  future  hope ;  good  sense  has  such  an 
instinctive  apprehension  of  what  is  fitting ;  intellect, 
imagination,  and  feeling  can  so  take  up,  develope, 
and  illuminate  what  nature  has  originated ;  education 
and  the  communication  of  ideas  can  so  insinuate  into 
the  mind  what  really  does  not  belong  to  it ;  grace, 
not  effectual,  but  inchoate,  can  so  plead,  and  its 
pleadings  look  so  like  its  fruits ;  and  its  mere  visi- 
tations may  so  easily  be  mistaken  for  its  indwelling 
presence ;  and  its  vestiges,  when  it  has  departed, 
may  gleam  so  beautifully  on  the  dead  soul ;  that  it 
is  quite  impossible  for  us  to  conclude,  with  any 
fairness  of  argument,  that  a  certain  opinion  is  true, 
or  a  religious  position  safe,  on  account  of  the  con- 
fidence or  apparent  excellence  of  those  who  adopt  it. 
Of  course  we  think  as  tenderly  of  them  as  we  can ; 
and  may  fairly  hope  that  what  we  see,  is  in  some 
instances  the  work  of  grace,  wrought  on  those  who 
are  in  invincible  ignorance ;  but  the  claim  is  un- 
reasonable and  exorbitant,  if  they  expect  their  state 
of  mind  is  to  be  taken  in  evidence,  not  only  of  pro- 
mise in  the  individual,  but  of  truth  in  his  creed. 

And  should  this  view  of  the  subject  unsettle  and 
depress  you,  as  if  it  left  you  no  means  at  all  of  as- 


certaining  whether  God  loves  you,  or  whether  any- 
thing is  true,  or  anything  to  be  trusted,  then  let  this 
feeling  answer  the  purpose  for  which  I  have  im- 
pressed it  on  you.  I  wish  to  deprive  you  of  your 
undue  confidence  in  self :  I  wish  to  dislodge  you 
from  that  centre  in  which  you  sit  so  self-possessed 
and  self-satisfied.  Your  fault  has  been  to  be  satis- 
fied with  but  a  half  evidence  of  your  security ;  you 
have  been  too  well  contented  with  remaining  where 
you  found  yourselves,  not  to  catch  at  a  line  of  ar- 
gument, so  indulgent,  yet  so  plausible.  You  have 
thought  that  position  impregnable ;  and  growing 
confident,  as  time  went  on,  you  have  presumed  to 
pronounce  it  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
doubt  of  your  Church  and  of  its  ordinances.  Learn, 
my  dear  brethren,  a  more  sober,  a  more  cautious 
tone  of  thought.  Learn  to  fear  for  your  souls.  It 
is  something  indeed  to  be  peaceful  within,  but  it  is 
not  every  thing.  It  may  be  the  stillness  of  death. 
The  Catholic,  and  he  alone,  has  within  him  that 
union  of  external,  with  internal  notes  of  God's 
favor,  which  sheds  the  light  of  conviction  over  his 
soul,  and  makes  him  both  fearless  in  his  faith,  and 
calm  and  thankful  in  his  hope. 


LECTURE  IV. 


THE    PROVIDENTIAL    DIRECTION    OF   THE  MOVEMENT  OF 
1833  NOT  TOWARDS    THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  fancy  that  an  event  so 
distinctive  in  its  character  as  the  rise  of  the  so- 
called  Anglo- Catholic  party  in  the  course  of  the  last 
twenty  years,  should  have  no  scope  in  the  designs  of 
Divine  Providence.  From  beginnings  so  small,  from 
elements  of  thought  so  fortuitous,  with  prospects  so 
unpromising,  that  in  its  germ  it  was  looked  upon 
with  contempt,  if  it  was  ever  thought  of  at  all,  it 
suddenly  became  a  power  in  the  National  Church, 
and  an  object  of  alarm  to  her  rulers  and  friends. 
Its  originators  would  have  found  it  difficult  to  say 
what  they  aimed  at  of  a  practical  kind  ;  rather  they 
put  forth  views  and  principles,  for  their  own  sake, 
because  they  were  true,  as  if  they  were  obliged  to 
say  them ;  and  though  their  object  certainly  was  to 
strengthen  the  Establishment,  yet  it  would  have 
been  very  difficult  for  them  to  state  precisely  the 

5 


98 

intermediate  process,  or  practical  application,  by 
which,  in  matter  of  fact,  their  preaching  was  to  ar- 
rive at  that  result.  And  as  they  might  be  them- 
selves surprised  at  their  earnestness  in  uttering,  they 
had  as  great  cause  to  be  surprised  at  their  success 
in  propagating,  the  doctrines  which  have  charac- 
terized their  school.  And,  in  fact,  they  could  only 
say  that  those  doctrines  were  in  the  air ;  that  to 
assert  was  to  prove,  and  that  to  explain  was  to  per- 
suade ;  and  that  the  movement  in  which  they  were 
taking  part  was  the  birth  of  a  crisis  rather  than  of 
a  place.  I  do  not  mean  to  say,  that  they  did  not 
use  arguments  on  the  one  hand,  or  attempt  to  coa- 
lese  with  things  as  they  were  on  the  other ;  but 
that,  after  all,  their  doctrine  went  forth  rather  than 
was  sent,  and  spoke  rather  than  was  spoken, — that 
it  was  a  message  rather  than  an  argument, — that  it 
was  the  master  not  the  creature  of  its  proclaimed 
and  seemed  to  be  said  at  random,  because  uttered 
with  so  indistinct  an  aim ;  and  so,  with  no  advantage 
except  that  of  position,  which  of  course  is  not  to  be 
undervalued,  it  spread  and  was  taken  up  no  one 
knew  how.  In  a  very  few  years  a  school  of  opinion 
was  formed,  fixed  in  its  principles,  indefinite  and 
progressive  in  their  range ;  and  it  extended  into 
every  part  of  the  country.  If,  turning  from  the 
contemplation  of  it  from  within,  we  inquire  what  the 
world  thought  of  it,  we  have  still  more  to  raise  our 
wonder ;  for,  not  to  mention  the  excitement  it  caused 


00 

in  England,  the  movement  and  its  party-names  were 
known  to  the  police  of  Italy  and  the  back- woodsmen 
of  America.  So  it  proceeded,  getting  stronger  and 
stronger  every  year,  till  it  has  come  into  collision 
with  the  Nation  and  that  Church  of  the  Nation 
which  it  began  by  professing  especially  to  serve ; 
and  now  its  upholders  and  disciples  have  to  look 
about,  and  ask  themselves  where  they  are,  and  which 
way  they  are  to  go,  and  whither  they  are  bound. 

God  does  nothing  in  vain ;  so  much  earnestness, 
zeal,  toil,  thought,  religious  principle,  success,  as  has 
been  expended  or  exhibited  in  the  history  of  that 
movement,  must  surely  have  a  place  in  His  scheme, 
and  in  His  dealings  towards  His  Church  in  this 
country,  if  we  could  discern  what  it  was.  He  has 
excited  aspirations,  matured  good  thoughts,  and. 
prospered  pious  undertakings  arising  out  of  them  : 
not  for  nothing,  surely, — then  for  what  ?  Wherefore  ? 

The  movement  certainly  is  one  and  the  same  to 
all  who  have  been  influenced  by  it ;  the  principles 
and  circumstances,  which  have  made  them  what  they 
are,  are  one  and  the  same ;  the  history  of  one  of  you, 
my  brethren,  is  pretty  much  the  history  of  another-^- 
the  history  of  all.  Is  it  meant  that  you  should  each 
of  you  end  in  his  own  way,  if  your  beginnings  have 
been  the  same?  The  duty  of  one,  is  it  not  the  duty 
of  another  ?  Are  you  not  to  act  together?  In 
other  words,  may  I  not  look  at  the  movement  as 
one  thing,  and  thus  contemplate  what  is  its  bearing 


100 

and  its  legitimate  issue ;  and  may  not,  in  conse- 
quence, that  direction  and  scope  of  the  movement, 
if  such  can  be  found,  be  taken  as  a  suggestion  to 
you  how  you  should  act,  distinct  from  and  in  addi- 
tion to  the  intimations  of  God's  will,  which  come 
home  to  you  personally  and  individually?  The 
movement  has  affected  us  in  a  certain  way;  at  one 
time  we  have  felt  urged  perhaps,  with  some  of  those 
who  took  part  in  it,  to  go  forward ;  at  another,  to 
remain  where  we  are;  then,  to  retire  into  lay-com- 
munion, if  we  were  in  the  established  ministry ;  then 
to  collapse  into  a  sect  external  to  its  pale.  We  have 
tried  to  have  faith  in  the  sacraments  of  the  National 
Church ;  for  a  time  we  have  succeeded,  and  then  we 
have  failed;  we  have  felt  ourselves  drawn,  we  have 
felt  ourselves  repelled  by  the  Catholic  Church — we 
have  felt  difficulties  in  her  faith,  counter-difficulties 
in  rejecting  it,  complications  of  difficulty  on  difficulty, 
concurrent  or  antagonist,  till  we  could  ascertain 
neither  their  mutual  relation  nor  their  combined 
issue,  and  could  neither  change  nor  remain  where  we 
were  without  scruple.  Under  such  a  trial  it  would 
be  some  guidance,  a  sort  of  token  or  note  of  the 
course  destined  for  us  by  Providence,  if  the  move- 
ment itself,  whose  principles  we  have  drunk  in,  with 
which  we  are  so  intimately  one,  had,  from  the  nature 
of  the  case,  its  own  natural  and  necessary  termina- 
tion. Before  now,  when  a  Protestant,  I  have  said, 
more  or  less  to  others  who  were  in  anxiety,  "  Watch 


101 

the  movement ;  it  is  made  up  of  individuals,  but  it 
has  an  objective  being,  proceeds  on  principles,  is 
governed  by  laws,  and  is  swayed  and  directed  by 
external  facts.  We  are  apt  to  be  attracted  or  driven 
this  way  or  that ;  each  thinks  for  himself  and  judges 
differently  from  others;  each  fears  to  decide:  but 
may  we  not  ascertain  and  follow  the  legitimate  and 
divinely  intended  course  of  that,  whose  children  we 
are  ?"  A  great  Saint  was  accustomed  to  command 
his  sons,  when  they  had  to  determine  some  point 
relatively  to  themselves  and  their  Society,  in  their 
imagination,  to  throw  themselves  out  of  themselves, 
and  to  look  at  the  question  externally,  as  if  it  were 
not  personal  to  them,  and  they  were  deciding  for  a 
stranger.  In  like  manner,  it  has  been  sometimes 
recommended  in  the  solution  of  public  questions,  to 
look  at  them  as  they  will  show  in  history,  and  as 
they  will  be  judged  of  by  posterity.  Now  in  some 
such  way  should  I  wish,  at  this  moment,  to  regard 
the  movement  of  1833,  and  to  discover  what  is  its 
proper,  suitable,  legitimate  termination.  This,  then, 
is  the  question  I  shall  consider  in  the  present  Lec- 
ture ; — here  is  a  great  existing  fact  before  our  eyes, 
the  movement  and  its  party.  What  is  to  become  of 
it  ?  What  ought  to  become  of  it  ?  Is  it  to  melt 
away  as  if  it  had  not  been  ?  Is  it  merely  to  sub- 
serve the  purpose  of  the  liberal  party,  in  breaking 
up  establishments  by  weakening  them,  and  in  making 
dogmatism  ridiculous  by  multiplying  sects  ?  or  is  it 


102 

of  too  positive  a  character,  both  in  its  principles  and 
its  members,  to  anticipate  for  it  so  disappointing  an 
issue  ? 

I  say,  it  has  been  definite  in  its  principles,  though 
vague  in  their  application  and  their  scope.  It  has 
been  formed  on  one  idea,  which  has  developed  into  a 
body  of  teaching,  logical  in  the  arrangement  of  its 
portions,  and  consistent  with  the  principles  on  which 
it  originally  started.  That  idea,  or  first  principle, 
Was  ecclesiastical  liberty ;  the  doctrine  it  especially 
opposed  was,  in  ecclesiastical  language,  the  heresy 
of  Erastus,  and,  in  political,  the  Royal  Supremacy^ 
The  object  of  its  attack  was  the  Establishment, 
considered  as  such. 

When  I  thus  represent  the  idea  of  the  movement, 
of  which  I  am  speaking,  I  must  not  be  supposed  to 
overlook  or  deny  it  its  theological,  or  its  ritual,  or 
its  practical  character ;  but  I  am  speaking  of  what 
may  be  called  its  form.  If  I  said  that  the  one  doc- 
trine of  Luther  was  justification  by  faith  only,  or 
of  Wesley,  the  doctrine  of  the  new  birth,  I  should 
not  be  denying  that  they  respectively  taught  many 
others  ;  but  merely  should  mean  that  their  teaching 
was  cast  in  that  particular  shape  which  I  have  men- 
tioned, each  portion  in  detail  being  made  subservient 
to  its  inculcation.  In  like  manner,  the  writers  of 
the  Apostolical  party  of  1833,  were  earnest  and 
copious  in  their  enforcement  of  the  high  doctrines 
of  the  faith,  of  dogmatism,  of  the  sacramental  prin- 


103 

ciple,  of  the  sacraments  (as  far  as  the  Anglican 
Prayer  Book  admitted  them),  of  ceremonial  obser- 
vances, of  practical  duties,  and  of  the  counsels  of 
perfection ;  but,  considering  all  those  great  articles 
of  teaching  to  be  protected  and  guaranteed  by  the 
independence  of  the  Church,  and  in  that  way  alone, 
they  viewed  sanctity,  and  sacramental  grace,  and 
dogmatic  fidelity,  merely  as  subordinate  to  the  mys- 
tical body  of  Christ,  and  made  them  minister  to  her 
sovereignty,  that  she  might  in  turn  protect  them  in 
their  prerogatives.  Dogma  would  be  maintained, 
sacraments  would  be  administered,  religious  perfec- 
tion would  be  venerated  and  attempted,  if  the  Church 
were  supreme  in  her  spiritual  power ;  dogma  would 
be  sacrificed  to  expedience,  sacraments  would  be 
rationalized,  perfection  would  be  ridiculed,  if  she 
was  made  the  slave  of  the  State.  Erastianism  then 
was  the  one  heresy  which  practically  cut  at  the  root 
of  all  revealed  truth  ;  the  man  who  held  it  would  soon 
fraternize  with  Unitarians,  mistake  the  bustle  of  life 
for  religious  obedience,  and  pronounce  his  butler  as 
able  to  give  communion  as  his  priest.  It  destroyed 
the  supernatural  altogether,  by  making  most  em- 
phatically Christ's  kingdom  a  kingdom  of  the  world. 
Such  was  the  teaching  of  the  movement  of  1833. 
The  whole  system  of  revealed  truth  was,  according 
to  it,  to  be  carried  out  upon  the  Anti-Erastian  or 
Apostolical  basis.  The  independence  of  the  Church 
is   almost  the  one  subject  of  three  out  of  four  vol- 


104 

umes  of  Mr.  Froude's  Remains ;  it  is,  in  one  shape 
or  other,  the  prevailing  subject  of  the  early  numbers 
of  the  "  Tracts  for  the  Times,"  as  well  as  of  other 
publications  which  might  be  named.  It  was  for 
this  that  the  writers  of  whom  I  speak  had  recourse 
to  Anti  juity,  insisted  upon  the  Apostolical  succession, 
exalted  the  Episcopate,  and  appealed  to  the  people, 
not  only  because  these  things  were  true  and  right, 
but  to  preserve  them  by  uttering  them  ;  in  order  to 
their  firmer  reception,  they  introduced  them  in  the 
first  instance  as  means  towards  the  inculcation  of  the 
idea  of  the  Church,  as  constituent  portions  of  that 
great  idea,  which,  when  it  once  should  be  received, 
was  to  convert  the  world. 

"  Our  one  tangible  object,"  it  was  said,  in  a  pas- 
sage too  long  to  be  extracted  at  length,  "  is  to  re- 
store the  connexion,  at  present  broken,  between 
Bishops  and  people ;  for  in  this  everything  is  in- 
volved, directly  or  indirectly,  for  which  it  is  a  duty 
to  contend.  We  wish  to  maintain  the  faith,  and 
bind  men  together  in  love.  We  are  aiming,  with 
this  view,  at  that  commanding  moral  influence  which 
attended  the  early  Church,  which  made  it  attractive 
and  persuasive,  which  manifested  itself  in  a  fascina- 
tion, sufficient  to  elicit  out  of  Paganism  and  draw 
into  itself  all  that  was  noblest  and  best  from  the 
mass  of  mankind ;  and  which  created  an  internal 
system  of  such  grace,  beauty,  and  majesty,  that 
believers   were  moulded  thereby  into  martyrs  and 


105 

evangelists.  If  master-minds  are  ever  granted  to 
us,  they  must  be  persevering  in  insisting  on  the 
Episcopal  system,  the  Apostolical  succession,  the 
ministerial  commission,  the  power  of  the  keys,  the 
duty  and  desirableness  of  Church  discipline,  the 
sacredness  of  Church  rites  and  ordinances.  But, 
you  will  say,  how  is  all  this  to  be  made  interesting 
to  the  people  ?  I  answer,  that  the  topics  themselves 
which  they  are  to  preach,  are  of  that  warm  and  at- 
tractive nature,  which  carries  with  it  its  own  influ- 
ence. The  very  notion  that  representatives  of  the 
Apostles  are  now  on  earth,  from  whose  communion 
we  may  obtain  grace,  as  the  first  Christians  did  from 
the  Apostles,  is  surely,  when  admitted,  of  a  most 
transporting  and  persuasive  character.  Clergymen 
are  at  present  subject  to  the  painful  experience  of 
losing  the  more  religious  portion  of  their  flocks, 
whom  they  have  tutored  and  moulded  as  children, 
but  who,  as  they  come  into  life,  fall  away  to  the 
Dissenters.  Why  is  this?  They  desire  to  be  stricter 
than  the  mass  of  Churchmen,  and  the  Church  gives 
them  no  means ;  they  desire  to  be  governed  by  sanc- 
tions more  constraining  than  those  of  mere  argument, 
and  the  Church  keeps  back  those  doctrines,  which, 
to  the  eye  of  faith,  give  a  reality  and  substance  to 
religion.  One  who  is  told  that  the  Church  is  the 
treasure-house  of  spiritual  gifts,  comes  for  a  definite 
privilege.  Men  know  not  of  the  legitimate  priest- 
hood, and,  therefore,  are  condemned  to  hang  upon 
5* 


106 

the  judgment  of  individuals  and  self- authorized 
preachers;  they  put  up  with  legends  of  private 
Christians,  in  the  place  of  the  men  of  God,  the  meek 
martyrs,  the  saintly  doctors,  the  wise  and  winning 
teachers  of  the  Catholic  Church.''* 

Passages  such  as  this,  which  is  but  a  portion  of  a 
whole,  show  to  me,  my  brethren,  clearly  enough, 
that  these  men  understood  the  nature  of  the  Church 
far  better  than  they  understood  the  nature  of  the 
Establishment,  which  they  sought  to  defend.  They 
saw  in  it,  indeed,  a  contrariety  to  their  Apostolical 
principles,  but  they  seem  to  have  fancied  that  such 
contrariety  was  an  accident  in  its  constitution,  and 
was  capable  of  a  cure.  They  did  not  understand 
that  the  Establishment  was  set  up  in  Erastianism, 
that  Erastianism  was  its  essence,  and  that  to  destroy 
Erastianism  was  to  destroy  the  Establishment.  The 
movement,  then,  and  the  Establishment,  were  in 
simple  antagonism  from  the  first,  although  neither 
party  know  it ;  they  were  logical  contradictories ; 
they  couid  not  be  true  together ;  what  was  the  life 
of  the  one,  was  the  death  of  the  other.  The  sole 
ambition  uf  the  Establishment  was  to  be  the  crea- 
ture of  the  State ;  the  sole  aspiration  of  the  move- 
ment was  to  force  it  to  act  for  itself.  The  movement 
went  forth  on  the  face  of  the  country :  it  read,  it 
preached,  it  published ;  it  addressed  itself  to  logic 


*  British  Magazine,  April,  183G. 


107 

and  to  poetry :  it  was  antiquarian  and  architect, 
only  to  do  for  the  Establishment,  what  the  Esta- 
blishment considered  the  most  intolerable  of  dis- 
services :  every  breath,  every  sigh,  every  aspiration, 
every  effort  of  the  movement  was  an  affront  or  an 
offence  to  the  Establishment.  In  its  very  first 
Tract,  it  could  wish  nothing  better  for  the  Bishops 
of  the  Establishment  than  martyrdom,  and,  as  the 
very  easiest  escape,  it  augured  for  them  the  loss  of 
their  temporal  possessions.  It  was  easy  to  foresee 
what  response  the  Establishment  would  make  to  its 
officious  defenders,  as  soon  at  it  could  recover  from 
its  surprise ;  but  experience  was  necessary  to  teach 
this  to  men  who  knew  more  of  St.  Athanasius  than 
of  the  Privy  Council  or  the  Court  of  Arches. 

"  Why  should  any  man  in  Britain,"  asks  a  Tract, 
"  fear  or  hesitate  boldly  to  assert  the  authority  of  the 
Bishops  and  pastors  of  the  Church  on  grounds 
strictly  evangelical  and  spiritual?"  "Reverend  Sir," 
answered  the  Primate,  to  a  protest  against  a  Bishop 
elect,  accused  of  heresy,  "It  is  not  within  the  bounds 
of  any  authority  possessed  by  me  to  give  you  an 
opportunity  of  proviDg  your  objections;  finding, 
therefore,  nothing  in  which  I  could  act  in  compliance 
with  your  remonstrance,  I  proceeded,  in  the  execu- 
tion of  my  office,  to  obey  Her  Majesty's  mandate 
for  Br.  Hampden's  consecration  in  the  usual  form." 

"  Are  we  contented, "  asks  another  Tract,  "  to  be 
accounted  the  mere  creation  of  the  State,  as  school- 


108 

masters  and  teachers  may  be,  as  soldiers,  or  magis- 
trates, or  other  public  officers  ?  Did  the  State  make 
us  ?  Can  it  unmake  us  ?  Can  it  send  out  mis- 
sionaries ?"  Can  it  arrange  dioceses?  "William 
the  Fourth,"  answers  the  first  magistrate  of  the 
State,  "  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  the  united  kingdom 
of  Great  Britain,  and  Ireland,  king,  defender  of  the 
Eaith,  to  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come, 
greeting  ;  We,  having  great  confidence  in  the  learn- 
ing, morals,  and  probity  of  our  well-beloved  and 
venerable  William  Grant  Broughton,  do  name  and 
appoint  him  to  be  Bishop  and  ordinary  pastor  of  the 
see  of  Australia,  so  that  he  shall  be  and  shall  be 
taken  to  be  Bishop  of  the  Bishop's  see,  and  may, 
by  virtue  of  this  our  nomination  and  appointment, 
enter  into  and  possess  the  said  Bishop's  see  as  the 
Bishop  thereof,  without  any  let  or  impediment  of 
us ;  and  we  do  hereby  declare,  that,  if  we,  our  heirs 
and  successors,  shall  think  fit  to  recall  or  revoke  the 
appointment  of  the  said  Bishop  of  Australia,  or  his 
successors,  that  every  such  Bishop  shall,  to  all  in- 
tent and  purposes,  cease  to  be  Bishop  of  Australia." 
"  Confirmation  is  an  ordinance,"  says  the  Tract, 
"  in  which  the  Bishop  witnesses  Christ.  Our  Lord 
and  Saviour  confirms  us  with  the  Spirit  of  all  good- 
ness; the  Bishop  is  His  figure  and  likeness,  when 
he  lays  his  hands  on  the  heads  of  children.  Then 
Christ  comes  to  them,  to  confirm  in  them  the  grace 
of  Baptism."     "  And  we  do  hereby  give  and  grant 


109 

to  the  said  Bishop  of  Australia,"  proceeds  His 
Majesty,  "  and  his  successors,  Bishops  of  Australia, 
full  power  and  authority  to  confirm  those  that  are 
baptized  and  come  to  years  of  discretion,  and  to  per- 
form all  other  functions  peculiar  and  appropriate  to 
the  office  of  Bishop  within  the  limits  of  the  said 
see  of  Australia." 

11  Moreover,"  says  the  Tract,  "  the  Bishop  rules 
the  Church  here  below,  as  Christ  rules  it  above ; 
and  is  commissioned  to  make  us  clergymen  God's 
ministers.  He  is  Christ's  instrument."  "  And  we 
do  by  these  presents  give  and  grant  to  the  said 
Bishop  and  his  successors,  Bishops  of  Australia,  full 
power  and  authority  to  admit  into  the  holy  orders 
of  deacon  and  priest  respectively  any  person  whom 
he  shall  deem  duly  qualified,  and  to  punish  and  cor- 
rect chaplains,  ministers,  priests,  and  deacons,  ac- 
cording to  their  demerits." 

"  The  Bishop  speaks  in  me,"  says  the  Tract,  "  as 
Christ  wrought  in  him,  and  as  God  sent  Christ ; 
thus  the  whole  plan  of  salvation  hangs  together ; 
Christ  the  true  Mediator ;  His  servant,  the  Bishop, 
His  earthly  likeness;  mankind,  the  subjects  of  His 
teaching;  God,  the  author  of  salvation."  And 
the  Queen  answers,  "  We  do  hereby  signify  to  the 
Most  Reverend  Father  in  God,  William,  Lord  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  our  nomination  of  the  said 
Augustus,  requiring,  and,  by  the  faith  and  love 
whereby  he  is  bound  unto  Us,  commanding  the  said 


110 

Most  Reverend  Father  in  God,  to  ordain  and  con- 
secrate the  said  Augustus."  And  the  consecrated 
prelate  echoes  from  across  the  ocean  against  the 
Catholic  pastor  of  the  country,  "  Augustus,  by  the 
grace  of  God  and  the  favor  of  Queen  Victoria, 
Bishop." 

"  You  will,  in  time  to  come,"  says  the  Tract, 
"  honor  us  with  a  purer  honor,  than  many  men  do 
now,  as  those  who  are  intrusted  with  the  keys  of 
heaven  and  hell,  as  the  heralds  of  mercy,  as  the  de- 
nouncers of  woe  to  wicked  men,  as  intrusted  with 
the  awful  and  mysterious  privilege  of  dispensing 
Christ's  Body  and  Blood."  And  a  first  Episcopal 
charge  replies  in  the  words  of  the  homily,  "  Let  us 
diligently  search  the  well  of  life,  and  not  after  the 
stinking  puddles  of  tradition,  devised  by  man's 
imagination."  A  second,  "  It  is  a  subject  of  deep 
concern  that  any  of  our  body  should  prepare  men 
of  ardent  feelings  and  warm  imaginations  for  a  re- 
turn to  the  Roman  Mass-book."  And  a  third, 
"  Already  are  the  foundations  of  apostacy  laid  ;  if 
we  once  admit  another  Gospel,  Antichrist  is  at  the 
door.  I  am  full  of  fear :  everything  is  at  stake ; 
there  seems  to  be  something  judicial  in  the  rapid 
spread  of  these  opinions."  And  a  fourth,  "It  is 
impossible  not  to  remark  upon  the  subtle  wile  of  the 
Adversary ;  it  has  been  signally  and  unexpectedly 
exemplified  in  the  present  day  by  the  revival  of 
errors  which  might  have  been  supposed  buried  for 


Ill 

ever."  And  a  fiftb,  "  Under  the  spurious  pretence 
of  deference  to  antiquity  and  respect  for  primitive 
models,  the  foundations  of  our  Protestant  Church 
are  undermined  by  men  who  dwell  within  her  walls, 
and  those  who  sit  in  the  Reformers'  seat  are  tra- 
ducing the  Reformation."  "  Our  glory  is  in  jeo- 
pardy," says  a  sixth.  "Why  all  this  tenderness 
for  the  very  centre  and  core  of  corruption?"  asks  a 
seventh.  "Among  other  marvels  of  the  present 
day,"  says  an  eighth,  "  may  be  accounted  the  irre- 
verent and  unbecoming  language  applied  to  the 
chief  promoters  of  the  Reformation  in  this  land. 
The  quick  and  extensive  propagation  of  opinions, 
tending  to  exalt  the  claims  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
Clergy,  can  be  no  proof  of  their  soundness."  "  Re- 
union with  Rome  has  been  rendered  impossible," 
sa\s  a  ninth,  "  yet  I  am  not  without  hope  that  more 
cordial  union  may,  in  time,  be  effected  among  all 
Protestant  Churches."  "Most  of  the  Bishops," 
says  a  tenth,  "  have  spoken  in  terms  of  disapproval 
of  the  l  Tracts  for  the  Times,'  and  I  certainly  be- 
lieve the  system  to  be  most  pernicious,  and  one 
which  is  calculated  to  produce  the  most  lamentable 
schism  in  a  Church  already  fearfully  disunited." 
"  Up  to  this  moment,"  says  an  eleventh,  "  the 
movement  is  advancing,  under  just  the  same  pacific 
professions,  and  the  same  imputations  are  still  cast 
upon  all  who  in  any  way  impede  its  progress.  Even 
the  English  Bishops,  who  have  officially  expressed 


112 

any  disapprobation  of  the  principles  or  proceedings 
of  the  party,  have  not  escaped  such  animadversions." 
"  Tractarianism  is  the  masterpiece  of  Satan,"  says 
a  twelfth. 

But  there  was  a  judgment  more  cruel  still,  be- 
cause its  apparent  tendency  lay  the  other  way ;  but 
it  was  the  infelicity  of  the  agents  in  the  movement, 
that,  the  National  Church  feeling  as  it  did,  their 
doctrines  could  not  be  sheltered  except  at  the  ex- 
pense of  their  principles.  "  A  Bishop's  lightest 
word,  ex  Cathedra,  is  heavy,"  said  a  writer  of  the 
"  Tracts  for  the  Times."  "  His  judgment  on  a 
book  cannot  be  light.  It  is  a  rare  occurrence." 
And  an  Archbishop  answered,  "  Many  persons  look 
with  considerable  interest  to  the  declarations  on  such 
matters  that  from  time  to  time  are  put  forth  by 
Bishops  in  their  Charges,  or  on  other  occasions. 
But  on  most  of  the  points  to  which  I  have  been  al- 
luding, a  Bishop's  declarations  have  no  more  weight, 
except  what  they  derive  from  his  personal  character, 
than  any  anonymous  pamphlet  would  have.  The 
points  are  mostly  such  as  he  has  no  official  power  to 
decide,  even  in  reference  to  his  own  diocese ;  and  as 
to  legislation  for  the  Church,  or  authoritative  de- 
clarations on  many  of  the  most  important  matters, 
neither  any  one  Bishop,  nor  all  collectively,  have 
any  more  right  of  this  kind,  than  the  ordinary 
magistrates  have,  to  take  on  themselves  the  func- 
tions of  Parliament." 


113 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  prolong  the  exhibition  of 
the  controversy,  or  to  recall  to  your  recollection  the 
tone  of  invective  in  which  each  party  relieved  the 
keen  and  vehement  feelings  which  its  opponents  ex- 
cited ;  how  the  originators  of  the  movement  called 
Jewell  "  an  irreverent  Dissenter  ;"  were  ever  "  think- 
ing worse  and  worse  of  the  Reformers;"  "hated 
the  Reformation  and  the  Reformers  more  and  more ;" 
thought  them  the  false  prophet  of  the  Apocalypse  ; 
described  the  National  Church  as  having  "blas- 
phemed tradition  and  the  Sacraments  ;"  were  "  more 
and  more  indignant  at  the  Protestant  doctrine  of 
the  Eucharist;"  thought  the  principle  on  which  it 
was  founded  "  as  proud,  irreverent,  and  foolish,  as 
that  of  any  heresy,  even  Socinianism;"  and  con- 
sidered the  Establishment  their  "  upas-tree,"  "  an 
incubus  on  the  country  ;"  and  its  reformed  condition, 
"  a  limb  badly  set,  which  must  be  broken  before  it 
could  be  righted ;" — and  how  they  were  called  in 
turn  "  superstitious,"  "  zealots,"  "  mystical,"  4'  ma- 
lignants,"  "  Oxford  heretics,"  "  Jesuits  is  disguise," 
"  tamperers  with  Popish  idolatry,"  "  agents  of  Sa- 
tan," "  a  synagogue  of  Satan,"  "  snakes  in  the 
grass,"  "  walking  about  our  beloved  Church,  pol- 
luting the  sacred  edifice,  and  leaving  their  slime 
about  her  altars;"  "whose  head,"  it  was  added, 
"  may  God  crush." 

Is  it  not  then  abundantly  plain,  that,  whatever  be 
the  destiny  of  the  movement  of  1833,  there  is  no 


114 

providential  tendency  towards  a  coalition  with  the 
Establishment?  It  cannot  strengthen  it,  it  cannot 
serve  it,  it  cannot  obey  it.  The  party  may  be  dis- 
solved, the  movement  may  die, — that  is  another 
matter;  but  it  and  its  idea  cannot  live,  cannot 
energize  in  the  National  Church.  If  St.  Athanasius 
could  agree  with  Arius,  St.  Cyril  with  Nestorius, 
St.  Dominic  with  the  Albigenses,  or  St.  Ignatius 
with  Luther,  then  may  two  parties  coalesce,  in  a 
certain  assignable  time,  or  by  certain  felicitously 
gradual  approximations,  or  with  dexterous  limita- 
tions and  concessions,  who  mutually  think  light 
darkness,  and  darkness  light.  "  Delenda  est  Car- 
thago ;"  one  or  other  must  perish.  Assuming  then 
that  there  is  a  scope  and  limit  to  the  movement,  we 
certainly  shall  not  find  it  in  the  dignities  and  offices 
of  the  National  Church. 

.  If  then  this  be  not  the  providential  direction  of 
the  movement,  let  us  ask  in  the  next  place,  is  it 
intended  to  remain  just  what  it  is,  not  in  power  or 
authority,  but  as  a  sort  of  principle  or  view  of  re- 
ligion, found  here  and  there,  with  greater  or  less 
distinctness,  with  more- or  fewer  followers,  scattered 
about  or  concentrated,  up  and  down  the  Establish- 
ment ;  with  no  exact  agreement  between  man  and 
man  in  matters  of  detail,  or  in  theoretical  basis,  but 
as  an  influence,  sleeping  or  rousing,  victorious  or 
defeated,  from  time  to  time,  as  the  case  may  be  ? 
This  state  of  things  is  certainly  supposable,  at  least 


115 


for  a  tiine,  for  a  generation ;  and  various  arguments 
may  be  adduced  in  its  behalf.  It  may  be  urged, 
that  if  you  cannot  do  any  positive  good  to  the  na- 
tion, yet  at  least  in  this  way  you  may  prevent  evil : 
that  to  be  a  drag  upon  the  career  of  unbelief,  if  you 
are  nothing  else,  is  not  a  mission  to  be  despised ; 
moreover,  if  it  be  not  an  heroic  course  of  action,  or 
look  well  in  history,  still  so  much  the  more  docs 
such  an  office  become  those  who  are  born  in  a  fallen 
time,  and  who  wish  to  be  humble.  Moreover, 
though  it  is  good  to  be  humble,  still,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  a  chance,  it  may  be  whispered  by 
others,  of  a  nobler  and  higher  function  opening  on 
you,  if  you  are  but  patient  and  dutiful  for  a  time. 
This  is  the  suggestion  of  those  who  cannot,  will  not, 
look  at  things  as  they  arc  ;  who  think  objects  feasi- 
ble because  they  are  desirable,  and  to  be  attempted 
because  they  are  tempting.  These  persons  go  on 
duelling  upon  the  thought  of  the  wonderful  power 
of  the  British  people  at  this  day  all  over  the  world, 
till  they  turn  to  consider  what  may  be  the  design  of 
Providence  in  raising  it  up.  They  feel  it  woidd  be 
a  most  powerful  instrument  of  good,  if  it  could  be 
directed  aright;  and  then  they  argue  that,  if  it  is  to 
be  influenced,  what  else  ought  naturally  and  ob- 
viously to  influence  it  but  the  National  Church? 
The  National  Church  then  is  to  be  Grod's  instrument 
for  the  conversion  of  the  world.  But  in  order  to 
this,  of  course  it  is  indispensable  that  the  National 


116 

Church  should  have  a  clear  and  sufficient  hold  of 
Apostolical  doctrine  and  usage ;  but  again,  who  is  to 
instruct  the  National  Church  in  these  necessary 
matters,  but  that  Apostolical  movement  to  which 
they  belong?  And  thus,  by  a  few  intermediate 
steps,  they  have  attained  the  conclusion,  that,  be- 
cause the  nation  is  so  powerful,  the  movement  must 
succeed.  They  bear  then  any  degree  of  humiliation 
and  discomfiture,  nay,  any  argumentative  exposure, 
any  present  stultification  of  their  principles,  any, 
however  chronic,  disorganisation,  with  an  immovable 
resolve,  as  a  matter  of  duty  and  merit,  as  being 
sanguine  about  the  future.  They  seem  to  feel  that 
the  whole  cause  of  truth,  the  reform  of  the  Esta- 
blishment, the  catholicising  of  the  nation,  the  con- 
version of  the  world,  depends  at  this  moment  on 
their  faithfulness  to  their  position;  on  their  own 
steadfastness  the  interests  of  humanity  are  at  stake, 
and  where  they  now  are,  there  they  will  live  and 
die.  They  have  taken  their  part,  and  to  that  part 
they  will  be  true. 

Moreover,  there  are  those  among  them  who  have 
very  little  grasp  of  principle,  even  from  the  natural 
tenor  of  their  minds.  They  see  that  this  thing  is 
beautiful,  and  that  is  in  the  Fathers,  and  a  third  is 
expedient,  and  a  fourth  pious ;  but  of  their  con- 
nexion one  with  another,  their  hidden  essence  and 
their  life,  and  the  bearing  of  external  matters  upon 
each  and  upon  all,  they  have  no  perception  or  even 


li? 

suspicion.  They  do  not  look  at  things  as  part  of  a 
whole,  and  often  will  sacrifice  the  most  important 
and  precious  portions  of  their  creed,  or  make  irre- 
mediable concessions  in  word  or  in  deed,  from  mere 
simplicity  and  want  of  apprehension.*  This  was  in 
one  way  singularly  exemplified  in  the  beginning  of 
the  movement  itself.  lam  not  saying  that  every 
word  that  was  used  in  the  "  Tracts  for  the  Times'5 
was  matter  of  principle,  or  that  the  doctrines  to  be 
enforced  were  not  sometimes  unnecessarily  colored 
by  the  vehemence  of  the  writer;  but  still  it  not 
seldom  happened  that  readers  took  statements,  which 
contained  the  very  point  of  the  argument,  or  the 
very  heart  of  the  principle,  to  be  mere  intemperate 
expressions,  and  suggested  to  the  authors  their  re- 
moval. "  They  went  a  great  way  with  us,  but  they 
really  could  not  go  so  far.  Why  speak  of  the  Apos- 
tolic succession,  instead  of  Evangelical  truth  and 
Apostolical  order  ?  It  gave  offence,  it  did  no  man- 
ner of  good.  Why  use  the  word  '  altar,'  if  it  dis- 
pleased weak  brethren  ?  The  word  '  sacrifice'  was 
doubtless  a  misprint  for  '  sacrament ;'  and  to  talk 
with  Bishop  Bull  of  'making  the  Body  of  Christ,' 
was  a  most  extravagant  unjustifiable  way  of  descri- 
bing the   administration   of   the   Lord's    Supper." 

*  Since  writing  this,  the  author  finds  it  necessary  to  add,  that 
he  had  no  reference  whatever  in  writing  it,  and  should  be  pained 
jo  seem  to  have  had,  to  particular  passages  in  the  controversy 
now  in  progress. 


IIS 

filings  are  changed  now  at  the  end  of  twenty  years  ; 
but  characters  and  intellects  are  the  same.  Such 
parsons  at  the  present  moment  do  not  formally  pro- 
fess any  intention  of  giving  up  any  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  movement,  but  they  think  it  possible  and 
expedient  to  divide  portion  from  portion,  and  are 
rash  and  inconsistent  in  their  advice  and  their  con- 
duct, from  mere  ignorance  of  what  they  are  doing. 
So,  too,  they  think  it  a  success,  and  are  elated  ac- 
cordingly, if  any  measure  whatever,  which  happens 
to  have  been  contemplated  by  the  movement,  is  any 
how  conceded  by  the  Establishment  or  by  the  State ; 
heedless  altogether  whether  such  portion  be  capable 
or  not  of  coalescing  with  a  foreign  principle,  and 
whether,  instead  of  modifying,  it  has  not  been 
changed  into  that  with  which  it  has  contended.  For 
instance,  the  movement  succeeded  in  gaming  an  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  Episcopal  sees  at  home  and 
abroad;  well,  a  triumph  it  certainly  is,  if  any  how 
to  succeed  in  a  measure  it  has  advocated  is  to  be 
called  by  that  name.  But  be  it  recollected  that 
measures  derive  their  character  and  their  worth  from 
the  principle  which  animates  them ;  they  have  little 
yeaning  in  themselves  ;  they  are  but  material  facts, 
unless  they  include  in  them  their  scope  and  enforce 
their  object ;  nay,  they  readily  assume  the  animus 
and  drift,  and  are  taken  up  into  the  form,  of  the 
system  by  which  they  are  adopted.  If  the  Apos- 
tolical movement  desired  to  increase  the  Episcopate, 


119 

it  was  with  a  view  to  its  own  Apostolical  principles  ) 
it  had  no  wish  merely  to  increase  the  staff  of  Go- 
vernment officers  in  England  or  in  the  colonics,  the 
patronage  of  a  ministry,  the  erection  of  rural  palaces, 
and  the  Latitudinarian  votes  in  Parliament.  Has 
it,  for  instance,  done  a  great  achievement  at  Man- 
chester, if  it  has  planted  there  a  chair  of  liberalism, 
and  inaugurated  an  anti-Catholic  tradition  ? 

A  policy,  then,  resting  on  such  a  state  of  mind 
as  I  have  been  describing,  viz.,  to  act  as  if  the 
course  of  events  itself  would,  some  way  or  other,, 
work  for  Apostolical  truth,  sooner  or  later,  more  or 
less,  to  let  things  alone,  to  do  nothing,  to  make  light 
of  every  triumph  of  the  enemy  from  within  or  with- 
out, to  wave  the  question  of  ecclesiastical  liberty,  to 
remain  where  you  are,  and  go  about  your  work  in 
your  own  place,  either  contented  to  retard  the 
course  of  events,  or  sanguine  about  an  imaginary 
future,  is  simply  to  abandon  the  cause  of  the  move- 
ment altogether.  It  is  simply  to  say  that  there  is 
no  providential  destiny  or  object  connected  with  it 
at  all.  You  may  be  right,  my  brethren ;  this  may 
be  the  case ;  perhaps  it  is  so.  You  have  a  right  to 
this  opinion,  but  understand  what  you  are  doing. 
Do  not  deceive  yourselves  by  words ;  it  is  not  a 
biding  your  time,  as  you  may  fancy,  if  you  surren- 
der the  idea  and  the  main  principle  of  the  move- 
ment; it  is  the  abandonment  of  your  cause.  You 
remain,  indeed,  in  your  place,  but  it  is  no  moral,  no 


120 

intellectual,  but  a  mere  secular,  visible  position 
which  you  occupy.  Great  men  in  warfare,  when 
they  are  beaten  back  from  the  open  country,  retire 
to  the  mountains  and  fortify  them,  in  a  territory 
which  is  their  own.  You  have  no  place  of  refuge 
from  the  foe ;  you  have  no  place  at  all,  no  happy 
diocese,  or  peaceful  parish,  where  you  can  utter  and 
carry  out  securely  those  very  things  which  you  hold 
to  be  most  true.  Your  retreat  is  an  evacuation. 
You  will  remain  in  the  Establishment  in  your  per- 
son, but  your  principles  will  be  gone. 

I  know  how  it  will  be, — a  course  as  undignified  as 
it  will  be  ineffectual.  A  sensation  and  talk  when- 
ever something  atrocious  is  to  be  done  by  the  State 
against  the  principles  you  profess :  a  meeting  of 
friends  here  or  there,  an  attempt  to  obtain  an  archi- 
diaconal  meeting ;  some  spirited  remarks  in  two  or 
three  provincial  newspapers  ;  an  article  in  a  review ; 
a  letter  to  some  Bishop ;  a  protest  signed  respecta- 
bly ;  suddenly,  the  news  that  the  anticipated  blow 
has  fallen,  and  causa  jinita  est.  A  pause,  and  then 
the  discovery  that  things  are  not  so  bad  as  they 
seemed  to  be,  and  that  your  Apostolical  Church  has 
come  forth  from  the  trial  even  stronger  and  more 
beautiful  than  before.  Still  a  secret  dissatisfaction 
and  restlessness ;  a  strong  sermon  at  a  visitation ; 
and  a  protest  after  dinner,  when  his  lordship's 
charge  is  to  be  printed ;  a  paragraph  in  a  newspaper, 
saying  how  that  most  offensive  proceedings  are  taking 


121 

place  in  such  and  such  a  parish  or  chapel ;  how  that 
there  were  flowers  on  the  table,  or  that  the  curate 
has  tonsured  himself,  or  used  oil  and  salt  in  bap- 
tiziag,  or  that  in  a  benefit  sermon  the  Rector  un- 
churched the  Society  of  Friends,  or  that  popery  is 
coming  in  amain  upon  our  venerable  Establishment, 
because  a  parsonage  has  been  built  in  shape  like  a 
Trappist  monastery.  And  then  some  new  signs  of 
life  ;  the  consecration  of  a  new  church,  with  Clergy 
walking  in  gowns,  two  and -two,  and  the  Bishop 
preaching  on  the  decent  performance  of  Divine 
Service,  and  the  due  decoration  of  the  house  of  God. 
Then  a  gathering  in  the  Christian  Knowledge 
Rooms;  a  drawn  battle,  and  a  compromise.  And 
every  now  and  then  a  learned  theological  work,  doc- 
trinal or  historical,  justifying  the  ecclesiastical  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  Anglican  Church  is  founded, 
and  refuting  the  novelties  of  Romanism.  And 
lastly,  on  occasion  of  a  contested  election  or  other 
political  struggle,  theology  mingled  with  politics; 
the  liberal  candidate  rejected  by  the  aid  of  the  High- 
Church  Clergy  on  some  critical  question  of  religious 
policy;  the  Government  annoyed  or  embarrassed; 
and  a  sanguine  hope  entertained  of  a  ministry  more 
favorable  to  Apostolical  truth.  My  brethren,  the 
National  Church  has  had  expeaence  of  this,  mutatis 
mutandis,  once  before :  I  mean  in  the  conduct  of 
the  Tory  Clergy  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, and  beginning  of  the  following.     Their  pro- 

6 


122 

ceedings  in  Convocation  were  a  specimen  of  it ;  their 
principles  were  far  better  than  those  of  their  Bish- 
ops ;  yet  the  Bishops  show  to  advantage,  and  the 
Clergy  look  small  and  contemptible  in  the  history  of 
that  contest.  Public  opinion  judged  as  it  ever 
judges,  by  such  broad  and  insignificant  indications 
of  right  and  wrong;  the  G-overnment  party  tri- 
umphed, and  the  meetings  of  the  Convocation  were 
suspended. 

It  is  impossible,  in  a  sketch  such  as  this,  to  com- 
plete the  view  of  every  point  which  comes  into 
consideration ;  yet  I  think  I  have  said  enough  to 
suggest  the  truth  of  what  I  have  affirmed  to  those 
who  carefully  turn  the  matter  in  their  minds.  Is 
the -influence  of  the  movement  to  be  maintained 
adequately  to  its  beginnings  and  its  promise  ?  Many, 
indeed,  will  say,  certainly  many  of  those  who  hated 
or  disapproved  of  it,  that  it  was  a  sudden  ebullition 
of  feeling,  or  burst  of  fanaticism,  or  reaction  from 
opposite  errors ;  that  it  has  had  its  day,  and  is  over. 
It  may  be  so;  but  I  am  addressing  those  who,  I 
consider,  are  of  another  opinion ;  and  to  them  I  ap- 
peal, whether  I  have  yet  suggested  any  thing  plau- 
sible about  the  providential  future  of  the  movement. 
It  is  surely  not  intended,  either  to  rise  into  the  high 
places  of  the  Establishment,  or  to  sink  into  a  vague, 
amorphous  faction,  at  the  foot  of  it.  It  cannot 
rise,  and  it  ought  not  to  sink. 

And  now  I  am  in  danger  of  exceeding  the  limits 


123 

which  I  have  proposed  to  myself,  though  another 
more  important  head  of  consideration  lies  before  me, 
could  I  hope  to  do  justice  to  it.  I  have  argued 
that  you  will  be  most  inconsistent,  my  brethren, 
with  your  principles  and  views,  if  you  remain  in  the 
Establishment  ;  I  say  with  your  piinciples  and 
views,  for  you  may  give  them  up,  and  then  you  will 
not  be  inconsistent.  You  may  say,  "  I  do  not  hold 
them  so  strongly  as  to  make  them  the  basis  and 
starting -place  of  any  course  of  action  whatever.  I 
have  believed  in  them,  it  is  true  ;  but  I  have  never 
contemplated  the  liabilities  you  are  urging  upon  me. 
I  cannot,  under  any  supposition,  contemplate  an 
abandonment  of  the  National  Church.  I  am  not 
that  knight-errant  to  give  up  my  position,  which 
surely  is  given  me  by  God,  on  a  theory.  I  am  what 
I  am.  I  am  where  I  am.  My  reason  has  followed 
the  teaching  of  the  movement,  and  I  have  assented 
to  it ;  so  far  I  grant.  But  it  is  a  new  idea  to  me 
quite,  which  I  have  never  contemplated  at  starting, 
which  I  cannot  contemplate  now, .  that  possibly  it 
might  involve  the  most  awful,  most  utter  of  sacri- 
fices. I  have  ten  thousand  claims  upon  me,  urging 
me  to  remain  where  I  am.  They  are  real,  tangible, 
habitual,  immutable ;  nothing  can  shake  or  lessen 
them  from  within.  A  distinct  call  of  God  from  with- 
out would  of  course  overcome  them,  but  nothing 
short  of  it.  Am  I  as  sure  of  these  Apostolical 
principles  which  I  have  embraced,  as  I  am  of  these 
claims  ?     And  I  am  doing  good  in  my  parish  and  in 


124 

my  place.  The  day  passes  as  usual.  Sunday 
comes  round  once  a  week ;  the  bell  rings,  the  con- 
gregation is  met,  and  service  is  performed.  There 
is  the  same  round  of  parochial  duties  and  charities ; 
sick  people  to  be  visited,  the  school  so  be  inspected. 
The  sun  shines,  and  the  rain  falls,  the  garden 
smiles,  as  it  used  to  do  ;  and  can  some  one  definite, 
external  event  have  changed  the  position  of  this 
happy  scene,  of  which  I  am  the  centre?  Is  not 
that  position  a  self-dependent,  is  it  a  mere  relative 
position  ?  What  care  I  for  the  Privy  Council  or 
the  Archbishop,  while  I  can  preach  and  catechise 
just  as  before  ?  I  have  my  daily  service  and  my 
Saints'  days'  sermons,  and  I  can  tell  my  people 
about  the  primitive  Bishops  and  martyrs,  and  about 
the  grace  of  the  Sacraments,  and  the  power  of  the 
Church,  how  that  it  is  Catholic,  and  Apostolic,  and 
Holy,  and  One,  as  if  nothing  had  happened;  and  I 
can  say  my  hours,  or  use  my  edition  of  Roman 
Devotions,  and  observe  the  days  of  fasting,  and 
take  confessions,  if  they  are  offered,  in  spite  of  all 
gainsayers." 

It  is  true,  my  dear  brethren,  you  may  knowingly 
abandon  altogether  what  you  have  once  held,  or  you 
may  preteud  to  hold  truths  without  being  faithful  to 
them  Well  then,  you  are  of  those  who  think  that 
the  movement  has  come  to  an  end ;  if  you,  in  your 
conscience,  think  so,  that  it  was  a  mere  phantom, 
or  deceit,  or  unreality,  or  dream,  which  has  taken 
you  in,  and  from  which  you  have  awakened,  I  have 


''('l  V    Id   hi    I    |/(|    |;    001   I   I    (I 

Washington, 


125 


not  a  word  to  say.  If,  however,  as  I  trust  is  the 
case,  Grod  has  not  in  vain  unrolled  the  pages  of  an- 
tiquity before  your  eyes,  but  has  stamped  them  upon 
your  hearts,  if  He  has  put  into  your  minds  that 
perception  of  the  truth  which,  once  given,  can  sel- 
dom be  lost,  once  possessed  will  ever  be  recognized, 
if  you  have  by  His  grace  been  favored  in  any  mea- 
sure with  the  supernatural  gift  of  faith,*  then,  my 
brethren,  I  think  too  well  of  you.  I  hope  too  much 
of  you,  to  fancy  that  you  can  be  untrue  to  convic- 
tions so  special  and  so  commanding.  No ;  you  are 
under  a  destiny,  the  destiny  of  truth — truth  is  your 
master,  not  you  the  master  of  truth — you  must  go 
whither  it  leads.  You  can  have  no  trust  in  the 
Establishment  or  its  Sacraments  and  ordinances. 
You  must  leave  it,  you  must  secede ;  you  must  turn 
your  back  upon,  you  must  renounce  what  has, — not 
suddenly  become, — but  has  now  been  proved  to  you 
to  have  ever  been,  an  imposture.  You  must  take  up 
your  cross,  and  you  must  go  hence.  But  whither  ? 
That  is  the  question  which  it  follows  to  ask,  could  I 
do  justice  to  it.  But  you  will  rather  do  justice  to 
it  in  your  own  thoughts.  Y"ou  must  betake  your- 
selves elsewhere, — and  "  to  whom  shall  you  go  ?" 


*  Errantes  invincibiliter  circa  aliquos  articulos,  et  credentes 
alios,  non  sunt  formaliter  haeretici,  sed  habentfidem  supernatu- 
ralem,  qua  credunt  veros  articulos,  atque  adeo  ex  ea  possunt 
procedere  actus  perfectae  contritionis,  quibus  justificentur  et  sal- 
ventur.  &c.—De  Lugo  de  fide,  xii.  3.  50. 


()  I  iMil 


LECTURE  V. 


THE  PROVIDENTIAL  DIRECTION  OF  THE  MOVEMENT  OF 
1833  NOT  TOWARDS  A  PARTY  IN  THE  NATIONAL 
CHURCH. 

I  know  how  very  difficult  it  is  to  persuade  others 
of  a  point  which  to  one's  self  may  be  so  clear  as  to 
require  no  argument  at  all ;  and,  therefore,  I  am 
not  at  all  sanguine,  my  brethren,  that  what  I  said 
in  my  last  Lecture  has  done  as  much  as  I  wished  it 
to  do.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  prove  to  men  that 
their  duty  lies  just  in  the  reverse  direction  to  that 
in  which  they  have  hitherto  placed  it ;  that  all  they 
have  hitherto  learned,  and  taught;  all  their  past 
labors,  hopes,  and  successes ;  that  their  boyhood, 
youth,  and  manhood  ;  that  their  position,  their  con- 
nexions, aud  their  influence,  are,  in  a  certain  sense, 
to  go  for  nothing ;  and  that  life  is  to  begin  with 
them  anew.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  attain  to  the 
conviction,  that,  with  the  Apostle,  their  greatest  gain 


127 

must  be  counted  loss ;  and  that  their  glory  and 
their  peace  must  be  found  in  what  will  make  them 
for  a  while  the  wonder  and  the  scorn  of  the  world. 
It  is  true  I  may  have  shown  you  that  you  cannot 
coalesce  with  the  National  Church ;  that  you  can- 
not wed  yourselves  to  its  principles  and  its  routine, 
and  that  it  in  turn  has  no  confidence  at  all  in  you; — 
and,  again,  that  you  cannot  consistently  hang  about 
what  you  neither  love  nor  trust,  cumbering  with 
your  presence  what  you  are  not  allowed  to  serve ; 
but  still  you  will  cling  to  the  past  and  present,  and 
will  hope  for  the  future  against  hope ;  and  your 
forlorn  hope  is  this,  that  it  is,  perhaps,  possible  to 
remain  as  an  actual  party  in  the  Establishment,  nay, 
an  avowed  party ;  not,  on  the  one  hand,  rising  into 
ecclesiastical  power,  yet  not,  on  the  other,  disor- 
ganized and  contemptible ;  but  availing  yourselves 
of  your  respective  positions  in  it,  and  developing, 
with  more  consistency  and  caution,  the  principles 
of  1833.  You  may  say  that  I  passed  over  this  ob- 
vious course  in  my  foregoing  Lecture,  and  decided 
it  in  the  negative  without  fan-  examination ;  and  you 
may  argue  that  such  a  party  is  surely  allowable  in  a 
religious  communion,  which,  as  the  Committee  of 
Privy  Council  implies,  is  based  upon  principles  so 
comprehensive,  exercises  so  large  a  toleration,  and  is 
so  patient  of  speculatists  and  innovators,  further 
removed  from  its  professed  principles  than  your- 
selves. 


Thus  I  am  led  to  take  one  more  survey  of  your 
present  position ;  yet  I  own  I  cannot  do  so  without 
an  apology  to  others,  who  may  think  that  I  am  tri- 
fling with  a  serious  subject  and  a  clear  case,  and 
imagining  objections  in  order  to  overthrow  them. 
Such  persons  certainly  there  may  be ;  and  I  would 
have  them  consider,  on  the  other  hand,  that  my  aim 
is  to  bring  before  those  I  am  addressing,  really  and 
vividly,  where  they  stand ;  that  this  cannot  be  dono 
unless  they  try  steadily  to  fix  their  minds  upon  it ; 
that  the  discussion  of  imaginary  cases  brings  out 
principles  which  they  cannot  help  feeling,  when 
presented  to  them,  and  the  relation,  moreover,  of 
those  principles  to  their  own  circumstances  ard 
duty ;  and  that  even  where  a  view  of  a  subject  is 
imaginary,  when  taken  as  a  whole  and  in  its  integral 
perfection,  yet  portions  of  it  may  linger  in  the  mind, 
unknown  to  itself,  and  influence  its  practical  de- 
cisions. 

With  this  apology  for  a  proceeding  which  some 
persons  may  feel  tedious,  I  shall  suppose  you,  my 
brethren,  to  address  me  in  the  following  strain: 
"  The  movement  has  been,  for  nearly  twenty  years, 
a  party,  and  why  should  it  not  continue  a  party  as 
before  ?  It  has  avowedly  opposed  a  contrary  party 
in  the  National  Church ;  it  has  had  its  principles, 
its  leaders,  its  usages,  its  party  signs,  its  publications : 
it  may  have  them  still.  It  was  once,  indeed,  a  point 
of  policy  to  deny  our  party  character,  or  we  tried 


129 

to  hide  the  truth  from  ourselves  ;  but  a  party  we 
were.  The  National  Church  admits  of  private 
judgment,  and  where  there  is  private  judgment^ 
there  must  be  parties,  We  are,  of  course,  under  a 
disadvantage  now,  which  then  did  not  lie  upon  us ; 
we  have,  at  the  present  time,  the  highest  ecclesias- 
tical authorities  in  distinct  and  avowed  opposition  to 
our  doctrines  and  our  doings ;  but  we  knew  their 
feelings  long  ago.  This  misfortune  is  nothing  new  ; 
we  always  reckoned  on  an  uphill  game  ;  it  is  better 
that  every  one  should  speak  out ;  we  now  know  the 
worst ;  we  know  now  where  to  find  our  spiritual 
rulers  ;  they  are  not  more  opposed  to  us  than  before) 
but  they  have  been  obliged  openly  to  commit  them* 
selves,  which  we  always  wished  them  to  do,  though, 
of  course,  We  should  have  preferred  their  committing 
themselves  on  our  side,  But,  any  how,  we  cannot 
be  said  to  be  in  a  worse  case  than  before ;  and  if  we 
Were  allowably  and  hopefully  a  party  before,  we 
surely  have  as  much  allowance  to  agitate,  and  not 
less  hope  of  success,  now,"  You  think,  then,  my 
brethren,  that  to-day  can  be  as  yesterday,  and  that 
your  present  position  is  your  old  one,  and  that  you 
Can  be  faithful  to  the  movement,  yet  continue  just 
what  yon  were,  My  brethren*  you  do  not  bear  in 
mind  that  a  movement  is  a  thing  that  moves ;  you 
cannot  be  true  to  it  and  remain  still,  The  single 
question  is,  What  is  the  limit  or  scope  of  that  which 

once   had  a   beginning  and  now  has  a  progress  ? 
6* 


130 

Circumstances  are  not  what  they  were.  If  you 
would  be  true  to  your  principles,  you  must  remove 
from  a  position  where  it  is  not  longer  possible  for  you 
to  fulfil  them. 

Your  movement  started  on  the  ground  of  main* 
tainiog  ecclesiastical  authority,  as  opposed  to  the 
Erastianism  of  the  State.  It  exhibited  the  Church 
as  the  one  earthly  object  of  religious  loyalty  and 
veneration,  the  source  of  all  spiritual  power  and 
jurisdiction,  and  the  channel  of  all  grace.  It  repre* 
sented  it  as  the  interest,  as  well  as  the  duty,  of 
Churchmen,  the  bond  of  peace  and  the  secret  of 
strength,  to  submit  their  judgment  in  all  things  to 
her  decision.  And  it  taught  that  this  divinely* 
founded  Church  was  realized  and  brought  into  effect 
in  our  country  in  the  National  Establishment,  which 
was  the  outward  form  or  development  of  a  con* 
tinuous  dynasty  and  hereditary  power  which  descend- 
ed from  the  Apostles.  It  gave  then  to  that  Es* 
tablishment,  in  its  officers,  its  laws,  its  usages,  and 
worship,  that  devotion  and  obedience,  which  are 
correlative  to  the  very  idea  of  the  Church.  It  set 
up  on  high  the  bench  of  Bishops  and  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  as  the  authority  to  which  it  was 
itself  to  bow,  with  which  it  was  to  cow  and  overs 
power  an  Erastian  State. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  bring  together  passages 
from  the  early  numbers  of  the  "  Tracts  for  the 
Times"  in  support  of  this  statement.     Each  Tract, 


isi 

I  may  say,  is  directed,  in  one  way  or  other,  to  the 
defence  of  the  existing  documents  or  regulations  of 
the  National  Church.  No  abstract  ground  is  taken 
in  these  compositions ;  conclusions  are  not  worked 
out  from  philosophical  premises,  nor  conjectures 
recommended  by  poetical  illustrations,  nor  a  system 
put  together  out  of  eclectic  materials :  but  emphati- 
cally and  strenuously  it  is  maintained,  that  whatever 
is  is  right,  and  must  be  obeyed.  If  the  Apostolic 
succession  is  true,  it  is  not  simply  because  St.  Ig* 
natius  and  St,  Cyprian  might  affirm  it,  though 
Fathers  are  adduced  also,  but  because  it  is  implied 
in  the  Ordination  Service.  If  the  Church  is  inde- 
pendent of  the  State  in  things  spiritual,  it  is  not 
simply  because  Bishop  Pearson  has  extolled  her 
powers  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Creed,  though 
divinea  are  brought  forward  as  authorities  too ;  but 
by  reason  of  "  the  force  of  that  article  of  our  belief, 
the  one  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church. 5*  If  the 
notoriousness  of  the  Episcopate  is  insisted  on,  it  is 
not  merely  as  contained  in  Holy  Scripture,  though 
Scripture  is  appealed  to  again  and  again ;  but  as 
implied  in  E£  that  ineffable  mystery,  called  in  the 
Creed,  the  Communion  of  Saints. >?  Scripture  was 
copiously  quoted,  the  Fathers  were  boldly  appealed 
to,  and  Anglican  divines  were  diligently  consulted* 
But  the  immediate,  present,  and,  as  the  leaders  of 
the  movement  hoped,  the  living  authority,  on  which 
they  based  their  theological  system*  was  what  was 


132 

called  the  "Liturgy."  This  "Liturgy,"  as  the 
instrument  of  their  teaching,  was,  on  that  account, 
regarded  as  practically  infallible.  "  Attempts  are 
making  to  get  the  Liturgy  altered,"  says  a  Tract ; 
"  I  beseech  you  consider  with  me,  whether  you  ought 
not  to  resist  the  alteration  of  even  one  jot  or  tittle 
of  it."  Then  as  to  the  Burial  Service  :  "I  frankly 
own,"  says  another  Tract,  "  it  is  sometimes  dis- 
tressing to  use  it ;  but  this  must  ever  be  in  the 
nature  of  things,  wherever  you  draw  the  line." 
Again,  "  there  was  a  growing  feeling  that  the  Ser- 
vices were  too  long,"  and  ought  to  be  shortened ; 
but  it  was  to  be  "  arrested"  by  "  certain  considera- 
tions" offered  in  a  Third.  "  There  were  persons 
who  wished  certain  Sunday  Lessons  removed  from 
the  Service;"  but,  according  to  a  Fourth,  there  was 
reason  the  other  way,  in  the  very  argument  which 
was  "brought  in  favor  of  the  change."  Another 
project  afloat  was  that  of  leaving  out  "  such  and 
such  chapters  of  the  Old  Testament,"  and  "  as- 
signing proper  Lessons  to  every  Sunday  from  the 
New;"  but  it  was  temperately,  and  ingeniously 
argued  in  a  Fifth,  that  things  were  best  just  as  they 
were.  And,  as  the  Prayer  Book,  so  too  was  the 
Episcopate,  invested  with  a  sacred  character,  which 
it  was  a  crime  to  affront  or  impair.  "  Exalt  our 
Holy  Fathers,"  said  a  Sixth  Tract,  "  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Apostles  and  the  Angels  of  the 
Churches."      "  They   stand   in   the   place    of  the 


133 

Apostles,"  said  a  Seventh,  "  as  far- as  the  office  of 
ruling  is  concerned;  and  he  that  despiseth  them, 
despiseth  the  Apostles." 

Now,  why  do  I  refer  to  these  passages  ?  Not  for 
their  own  sake,  but  to  show  that  the  movement  was 
based  on  submission  to  a  definite  existing  authority, 
and  that  private  judgment  was  practically  excluded. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  its  originators  thought  the 
Prayer  Book  inspired,  any  more  than  the  Bishop? 
infallible,  as  if  they  had  nothing  to  do  but  accept 
and  believe  what  was  put  into  their  hands.  They 
had  too  much  common  sense  to  deny  the  necessary 
exercise  of  private  judgment,  in  one  way  or  another. 
They  knew  that  the  Catholic  Church  herself  ad- 
mitted it,  though  she  directed  and  limited  it  to  a 
decision  upon  the  organ  of  revelation ;  and  they 
expressly  recognized  what  they  had  no  wish  to  deny. 
"  So  far,"  they  said,  "  all  parties  must  be  agreed, 
that  without  private  judgment  there  is  no  respon- 
sibility ....  even  though  an  infallible  guidance 
be  accorded,  a  man  must  have  a  choice  of  resisting 
it  or  not."*  But  still,  not  denying  it  as  an  abstract 
truth,  they  were  of  opinion  that,  as  regards  the 
teaching  of  the  Liturgy,  or  the  enunciations  of  the 
Bishops, — which  is  the  point  immediately  under  our 
consideration, — all  differences  existing  between  mem- 
bers of  the  Establishment  could  be  but  minor  ones; 


*  Newman's  Proph.  Off.  p.  157. 


is4 

winch  might  profitably,  and  without  effort,  be  sup- 
pressed ;  that  is,  they  were  such  as  ought  to  "be  in- 
wardly discredited  and  rejected,  as  less  probable 
than  the  received  opinion,  or  at  most  must  be  enter- 
tained at  home,  not  published  or  defended.  They 
could  not  be  more  than  matters  of  opinion,  not  of 
doctrine.  Thus,  with  respect  to  alterations  in  the 
Prayer  Book,  the  Tract  says,  "  Though  most  of  you 
Would  wish  some  immaterial  points  altered,  yet  not 
many  of  you  agree  in  those  points,  and  not  many  of 
you  agree  what  is  and  what  is  not  immaterial.  If 
all  your  respective  emendations  are  taken,  the  al- 
terations in  the  Service  will  be  extensive ;  and, 
though  each  will  gain  something  he  wishes,  he  will 
lose  more  from  those  alterations  which  he  did  not 
wish.  How  few  would  be  pleased  by  any  given 
alteration,  and  how  many  pained  1"  Though,  then, 
the  Prayer  Book  was  not  perfect,  it  had  a  sort  of 
practical  perfection;  and,  though  it  was  not  un«* 
erring,  it  had  a  claim  to  be  used  as  such,  because 
the  evil  of  criticism  was  so  very  dangerous.  "  A 
taste  of  criticism  grows  upon  the  mind.  This  un- 
settling of  the  mind  is  a  frightful  thing,  both  for 
ourselves,  and  more  so  for  our  flocks. ,J  The  prin* 
eiple,  then,  of  these  writers  was  this !  An  infallible 
authority  is  necessary ;  we  have  it  not ;  for  the 
Prayer  Book  is  all  we  have  got.  But,  since  we 
have  nothing  better,  we  must  use  it,  a3  if  infallible. 
I  am  not  justifying  the  logic  of  this  proceeding,  but) 


135 

if  it  be  deficient,  much  more  clearly  does  it,  for  thai 
very  reason,  bring  out  the  strength  with  which  they 
held  the  principle  of  authority  itself,  when  they 
would  make  so  great  an  effort  to  find  it  a  place  in 
the  national  religion,  and  would  rather  force  a  con- 
clusion than  give  up  their  premiss. 

The  Prayer  Book,  then,  accordiug  to  the  first 
agents  in  the  movement,  was  the  arbiter,  and  limit, 
and  working  rule  of  the  ten  thousand  varying  private 
judgments  of  which  the  community  was  made  up, 
which  could  not  all  be  satisfied,  which  could  not  all 
be  right;  which  were,  every  one  of  them,  less  likely 
to  be  right  than  it.  It  was  the  immediate  instru- 
ment by  means  of  which  they  professed  to  make 
their  way,  the  fulcrum  by  which  they  were  to  hoist 
up  the  Establishment  and  set  it  down  securely  on 
the  basis  of  Apostolical  Truth.  And  thus  it  was 
accepted  by  the  party,  not  only  as  essentially  and 
substantially  true,  but  also  as  eminently  expedient 
and  necessary  for  the  time. 

"  To  do  any  thing  effectually, "  said  a  speaker  in 
a  dialogue,  who  on  the  whole  is  meant  to  express  the 
feelings  of  the  party,  in  answer  to  a  Romanizing 
friend,  "  we  must  stand  upon  recognized  principles 
and  customs.  Any  other  procedure  stamps  a  person 
as  wrongheaded,  ill-judging,  or  eccentric  j  and 
brings  upon  him  the  contempt  and  ridicule  of  those 
sensible  men,  by  whose  opinions  society  is  necessarily 
governed .     Putting  aside  the  question  of  tiuth  and 


136 

falsehood  (which,  of  course,  is  the  main  considera* 
tion),  even  as  aiming  at  success,  we  must  be  aware 
of  the  great  error  of  making  changes  on  no  more 
definite  basis  than  their  abstract  fitness,  alleged 
scripturalness,  or  adoption  by  the  ancients.  Such 
changes  are  rightly  called  innovations ;  those  which 
spring  from  existing  institutions,  opinions,  and  feel- 
ings, are  called  developments,  and  may  be  recom- 
mended, without  invidiousness,  as  improvements.  I 
adopt  them,  and  claim  as  my  own,  that  position  of 
yours,  that  '  we  must  take  and  use  what  is  ready  to 
our  hands.'  To  do  otherwise  is  to  act  the  doctrinaire^ 
and  to  provide  for  failure.  For  instance,  if  we  would 
enforce  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day,  we  must  not, 
at  the  outset,  rest  it  on  any  theory,  however  just,  of 
Church  authority,  but  on  the  authority  of  Scripture. 
If  we  would  oppose  the  State's  interference  with  the 
distribution  of  Church  property,  we  shall  succeed, 
not  by  urging  any  doctrine  of  Church  independence, 
or  by  citing  decrees  of  general  councils,  but  by 
showing  the  contrariety  of  that  measure  to  existing 
constitutional  and  ecclesiastical  precedents  among 
ourselves.  Hildebrand  found  the  Church  provided 
with  certain  existing  means  of  power  ;  he  vindicated 
them,  and  was  rewarded  with  the  success  which  at* 
tends,  not  on  truth  as  such,  but  on  this  prudence 
and  tact  in  conduct.  St.  Paul  observed  the  same 
rule,  whether  in  preaching  at  Athens  or  persuading 
his  countrymen.     It  was  the  gracious  condescension 


137 

of  our  Lord  Himself,  not  to  substitute  Christianity 
for  Judaism  by  any  violent  revolution,  but  to  develope 
Judaism  into  Christianity,  as  the  Jews  might  bear 
it."* 

Now  all  this  was  very  well,  if  expedience  was  the 
end,  and  not  merely  a  reason,  of  their  extolling  the 
Episcopate  and  the  Prayer  Book :  but,  if  it  was  a 
question  of  truth,  and  as  such  they  certainly  con- 
sidered it,  then  it  was  undeniable,  that  Prayer  Book 
and  Episcopate  could  not  support  themselves,  but 
required  some  intellectual  basis ;  and  what  was  that 
to  be?  Here  again,  as  before,  (and  this  is  the  point 
to  which  all  along  I  wish  to  direct  your  attention,) 
these  writers  professed  to  go  by  authority,  not  by 
private  judgment ;  for  they  fell  back  upon  the  di- 
vines of  the  Anglican  Church,  as  their  means  of 
ascertaining  both  what  it  taught  and  why.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  remind  any,  who  have  fol- 
lowed the  movement  in  its  course,  how  careful  and 
anxious  they  were,  as  soon  as  they  got  (what  may  be 
called)  under  weigh,  at  once  to  collect  and  arrange 
catenas  of  Anglican  authorities,  on  whom  their  own 
teaching  might  be  founded,  and  under  whose  name 
it  might  be  protected.  Accordingly,  the  doctrines 
especially  of  the  Apostolical  succession,  of  Baptismal 
Regeneration,  of  the  Eucharistic  sacrifice,  and  of  the 
Rule  of  Faith,  were  made  the  subject  ot  elaborate 


British  Magazine,  April,  1836. 


138 

collections  of  extracts  from  the  divines  of  the  Es- 
tablishment. And  so  in  like  manner,  when  a  formal 
theory  or  idea  was  attempted  of  the  Anglican  sys- 
tem, the  writer  told  us  that  "  he  had  endeavored,  in 
all  important  points  of  doctrine,  to  guide  himself  by 
our  standard  divines ;  and,  had  space  admitted, 
would  have  selectad  passages  from  their  writings  in 
evidence  of  it."  Such  a  collection  of  testimonies  is 
almost  a  duty  on  the  part  of  every  author,  who  pro- 
fesses, not  to  strike  out  new  theories,  but  to  build  up 
and  fortify  what  has  been  committed  to  us.  For 
specimens  of  what  is  here  alluded  to,  he  refers  to 
the  Catenae  Patrum,  published  in  the  "  Tracts  for 
the  Times."* 

But  now  a  further  question  obviously  rises ;  by 
what  authority  will  you  determine  what  divines  are 
authoritative,  and  what  are  not?  for  it  is  obvious, 
unless  you  ean  adduce  such,  private  judgment  will 
come  in  at  last  upon  your  ecclesiastical  structure,  in 
spite  of  your  hitherto  success  in  keeping  it  out. 
This  answer  was  ready: — Scripture  suggested  to 
them  the  rule  they  should  follow,  and  it  was  a  rule 
external  to  themselves.  They  professed  to  take 
simply  those  as  authorities,  whom  "  all  the  people 
accounted   as   prophets.  "|     As   it  was  no  private 


*  Proph.  Off.  p.  vi. 

t  "  Or  take  again  those,  whom  by  a  natural  instinct  all  the 
people  count  as  prophets,  and  will  it  not  be  found  that  either 
altogether,  or  in  those  works  which  are  most  popular,  those 


139 

judgment,  but  the  spontaneous  sentiment  of  a  whole 
people,  that  canonized  the  Baptist,  as  the  ancient 
saints  are  raised  over  our  altars  by  the  acclamation 
of  a  universal  immemorial  belief,  so,  according  to 
these  writers,  the  popular  voice  was  to  be  consulted, 
and  its  decision  simply  recorded  and  obeyed,  in  the 
selection  of  the  divines,  on  whom  their  theology  was 
to  be  founded.  They  professed  to  put  aside  indi- 
vidual liking ;  they  might  admire  Hooker,  or  think 
him  difficult ;  they  might  love  Taylor,  or  feel  a  secret 
repugnance  to  him ;  they  might  delight  in  the  vigor 
of  Bull,  or  be  repelled  by  his  homeliness  and  his 
want  of  the  supernatural  element;  these  various 
feelings  they  had,  but  they  did  not  wish  to  select 
their  authorities  by  any  such  private  taste  or  reason, 
in  which  they  would  differ  from  each  other,  but  by 
the  voice  of  the  community.  For  instance,  Davenant 
is  a  far  abler  writer  than  Hammond,  but  how  few 
have  heard  of  him  ?  Home  or  Wilson  is  far  infe- 
rior in  learning  or  originality  to  Warburton,  yet  their 


writers  are  ruled  by  primitive  and  catholic  principles?  No  man, 
for  instance,  was  an  abler  writer  in  the  last  century  than  War- 
burton,  or  more  famous  in  his  day  ;  yet  the  glare  is  over,  and  now 
Bishops  Wilson  and  Home,  men  of  far  inferior  powers,  but  of 
catholic  temper  and  principles,  fill  the  doctor's  chair  in  the  eyes 
of  the  many."    (British  Critic,  Jan.,  1840,  p.  478. ) 

There  was  another  cbvioud  rule  also,  but  still  not  a  private 
one.  They  had  recourse  to  those  Anglican  divines  who  alone 
contemplated,  and  professed  to  provide,  an  idea,  theory  or  in- 
tellectual position  for  their  Church,  as  Laud  and  Stillingfleet. 


HO 

works  have  a  popularity  which  Warburton's  have 
not,  and  have,  in  consequence,  a  higher  claim  to  the 
formal  title  of  Anglican  divinity.  Such  was  the 
principle  of  selection  on  which  the  authors  of  the 
movement  proceeded;  and  if  you  say  they  were 
untrue  to  their  principles,  and,  after  all,  selected 
partially,  and  on  private  judgment,  so  much  the 
more  for  my  purpose.  How  clearly  must  the  prin- 
ciple of  an  ecclesiastical  and  authoritative,  not  a 
private  judgment,  have  been  the  principle  of  the 
movement,  when  those  who  belonged  to  it  were 
obliged  to  own  that  principle,  at  the  very  time  tbat 
it  was  inconvenient  to  them,  and  when  they  were 
driven,  whether  consciously  or  not,  to  misuse  or 
evade  it ! 

Such  then  was  the  principle  on  which  they  pro- 
fessed to  select  the  authorities  they  were  to  follow ; 
nor  was  their  anxiety  in  consulting  less  than  their 
caution  in  ascertaining  them.  Here,  again,  I  am 
not  going  into  the  question  whether  they  deceived 
themselves  in  consulting,  as  well  as  in  ascertaining 
these  divines ;  whether  they  followed  them  where 
they  agreed  with  themselves,  and  where  they  stopped 
short,  went  forward  without  them  :  I  am  not  aware 
that  they  did ;  but,  whether  they  did  or  no,  they 
tried  not  to  do  so ;  they  wished  to  make  the  An- 
glican divines  real  vouchers  and  sanctions  of  their 
own  teaching,  and  they  used  their  words  rather  than 
their  own.     They  shrank   from   seeming  to  speak 


141 

without  warrant,  even  on  matters  which  in  no  sense 
were  matters  of  faith,  and  I  can  adduce  an  instance 
of  it,  which  is  more  to  the  point,  for  the  very  reason 
it  was  singularly  misunderstood ;  and,  though  it  may 
seem  to  require  some  apology  that  I  should  again 
refer  to  an  author  from  whom  I  have  made  several 
extracts  already,  I  have  an  excuse  for  doing  so  in 
the  circumstance,  that  I  naturally  know  his  works 
better  than  those  of  others,  and   I  can  quote  him 
without  misrepresenting  him  or  hurting  his  feelings. 
In  a  Retractation  then,  which  was  published  in  the 
year  1843,  of  some  strong  statements  made  against 
the  Catholic  Church,  by  one  of  the  original  writers, 
these  words  occur :—  "  If  you  ask  me  how  an  indi- 
vidual could  venture,  not  simply  to  hold  but  to  publish 
such  views  of  a   communion   so  ancient,  so  wide- 
spreading,  so  fruitful  in  Saints,  I  answer  that  I  said 
to  myself,  '  I  am  not  speaking  my  own  words,'  I 
am  but  following  almost  a  consensus  of  the  divines 
of  my  Church.     They  have  ever  used  the  strongest 
language   against   Rome,  even  the  most  able  and 
learned  of  them.     I  wish  to  throw  myself  into  their 
system.     While  I  say  what  they  say,  I  am  safe. 
Such  views,  too,  are  necessary  for  our  position." 
Now  this  passage  has  been  taken  to  mean  that  the 
writer  spoke  from    expediency,   what   he    did   not 
believe  ;  but  this  is  false  in  fact,  and  inaccurate  in 
ciiticism.     He  spoke  what  he  felt,  what  he  thought, 
what  at  the  time  he  held,  and  nothing  but  what  he 


142 

held,  with  an  internal  assent;  but  he  would  not 
have  dared  to  say  it,  he  would  have  shrunk,  as  well 
he  might,  from  standing  up,  a  sinner  and  a  worm,  an 
accuser  against  the  great  Roman  communion,  unless 
in  doing  so  he  felt  he  had  been  doing  simply  what 
his  own  Church  required  of  him,  and  what  was  ne- 
cessary for  his  Church's  case,  what  all  his  Church's 
divines  had  ever  done  before  him.  This  being  the 
case,  he  "  could. venture,  not  simply  to  hold,  but  to 
publish;"  he  was  not  u  speaking  his  own  words," 
though  he  was  expressing  his  own  thoughts,  and, 
this  being  the  case,  he  could  "  throw  himself  into," 
he  could  shelter  himself  behind,  a  "  system  received 
by  his  Church,"  as  well  as  by  himself.  He  felt 
"  safe,"  because  he  spoke  after,  and  according  to  its 
teaching  and  its  teachers.  It  was  one  sin,  the  having 
thought  ill  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  it  was  another 
and  greater,  to  have  spoken  what  he  thought ;  and 
there  was  just  this  alleviation  of  his  second  sin,  that 
he  said  what  others  had  said  before  him.  There  is 
nothing  difficult  or  unnatural  surely  in  this  state  of 
mind ;  but  it  is  not  wonderful  that  to  the  mass  of 
Protestants,  it  was  incomprehensible  that  any  should 
shrink  from  the  exercise  of  that  private  judgment, 
in  which  they  so  luxuriated  themselves,  should 
apologize  for  what  was  simply  a  virtue,  and  should 
lament  over  the  use  of  a  privilege. 

But  I  have  not  yet  arrived  at  the  ultimate  reso- 
lution of  faith,  in  the  judgment  of  the  theological 


143 

party  of  1833  ;  the  Anglican  divines  were,  it  seems, 
to  be  followed,  but,  after  all,  were  they  inspired 
more  than  the  Prayer  Book  ?  else,  on  what  are  we 
to  say  that  their  authority  depended  in  turn  ? 
Again,  the  answer  was  ready ;  The  Anglican  di- 
vines are  sanctioned  by  that  authority,  to  which 
they  themselves  refer,  the  Fathers  of  the  Church, 
Thus  spoke  the  party  ;  now  at  length  you  will  say* 
they  are  brought  to  a  point,  when  private  judgment 
must  necessarily  be  admitted ;  for  who  shall  ascer- 
tain what  is  in  the  Fathers,  and  what  is  not,  without 
a  most  special  and  singular  application  of  his  own 
powers  of  mind  and  his  own  personal  attainments, 
to  the  execution  of  so  serious  an  undertaking  ?  But 
not  even  here  did  they  allow  themselves  committed 
to  the  Protestant  instrument  of  inquiry,  though 
this  point  will  require  some  little  explanation.  It 
must  be  observed  then,  that  they  were  accustomed 
to  regard  theology  generally,  much  more  upon  its 
Anti- Protestant  side  than  upon  its  Anti-Roman; 
and,  from  the  circumstances  in  which  they  found 
themselves,  were  far  more  solicitous  to  refute  Lu- 
ther and  Calvin  than  Suarez  and  Bellarmine.  Pro- 
testantism was  a  present  foe,  Catholicism,  or  Ro- 
manism, as  they  called  it,  was  but  a  possible 
adversary;  "it  was  not  likely,"  they  said,  "that 
Romanism  should  ever  again  become  formidable  in 
England ;"  and  they  engaged  with  it  accordingly, 
not  from  any  desire  to  do  so,  but  because  they  could 


144 


not  form  an  ecclesiastical  theory  without  its  coming 
in  their  way,  and  challenging  their  notice.  It  was 
**.  necessary  for  their  position"  to  dispose  of  Catho- 
licism, but  not  as  a  task  of  which  they  acquitted 
themselves  with  the  zeal  or  interest  which  was  so 
evident  in  their  assaults  upon  their  Protestant 
brethren.  "  Those  who  feel  the  importance"  of  that 
article  of  the  Creed,  "  the  holy  Catholic  Church/' 
says  a  work  several  times  quoted,  "  and  yet  are  not 
Romanis's,  are  bound  on  several  accounts  to  show 
why  they  are  not  Romanists,  and  how  they  differ 
from  them.  They  are  bound  to  do  so,  in  order  to 
remove  the  prejudice,  with  which  an  article  of  the 
Creed  is  at  present  encompassed.  From  the  cir- 
cumstances then  of  the  moment,  the  following  Lec- 
tures are  chiefly  engaged  in  examining  and  exposing 
certain  tenets  of  Romanism."*  His  feeling  then, 
seems  to  have  been, — I  should  have  a  perfect  case 
against  this  Protestantism,   but   for   these   incon- 


*  Proph.  Office,  p.  7.  The  writer  is  not  unmindful  of  the 
following  "  ground"  for  publishing  the  Translations  of  the  Fa- 
thers, contained  in  the  Prospectus: — "  II.  The  great  danger  in 
which  Romanists  are  of  lapsing  into  sec;et  infidelity,  not  seeing 
how  to  escape  from  the  palpable  errors  of  their  own  Church, 
without  falling  into  the  opposite  errors  of  ultra- Protestants.  It 
appeared  an  act  of  especial  charity  to  point  out  to  such  of  them 
as  are  dissa'isfied  with  the  state  of  their  own  Church,  a  body  cf 
ancient  Catholic  truth,  free  from  the  errors  alike  of  modern 
Rome,  and  of  ultra- Protestantism."  He  has  nothing  to  say  in 
explanation,  but  it  does  not,  he  considers,  affect  the  argument. 


145 


venient  "  Romanists,"  whose  claims  I  do  not  admit 
indeed,  but  who,  controversially,  stand  in  my  way. 
But  now  as  to  the  point  before  us ;  the  conse- 
quence of  this  state  of  mind  was,  that  they  were 
nob  very  solicitous  (if  I  dare  speak  for  others)  how 
far  the  Fathers  seemed  to  tell  for  the  Church  of 
Rome  or  not ;  on  the  whole,  they  were  sure  they  did 
not  tell  materially  for  her ;  but  it  was  no  matter, 
though  they  partially  seemed  to  do  so;  for  their 
great  and  deadly  foe,  their  scorn,  and  their  laughing- 
stock, was  that  imbecile,  inconsistent  thing  called 
Protestantism ;  and  there  could  not  be  a  more  tho- 
rough refutation  of  its  foundation  and  superstructure 
than  was  to  be  found  in  the  volumes  of  the  Fathers. 
There  was  no  mistaking  that  the  principles  professed, 
and  doctrines  taught  by  those  holy  men,  were  utterly 
Anti-Protestant ;  and,  being  satisfied  of  this,  which 
was  their  principal  consideration,  it  did  not  occur  to 
them  accurately  to  determine  the  range  and  bounds 
of  the  teaching  of  the  early  Church,  or  to  reflect 
that  perhaps  they  had  a  clearer  view  of  what  it  did 
sanction,  than  of  what  it  did  not.  They  saw  then, 
that  there  simply  was  no  opportunity  at  all  of  pri- 
vate judgment,  if  one  wished  to  exercise  it,  as  re- 
gards the  Anti-Protestantism  of  the  Fathers ;  it  was 
a  patent  fact,  open  to  all,  written  on  the  face  of  their 
works ;  you  might  defer  to  them,  you  might  reject 
them,  but  you  could  as  little  deny  that  they  were 
essentially  Anti-Protestant,  a3  you  could  deny  that 

7 


146 

those  whom  they  called  Romanists  were  Anti-Pro- 
testant. It  was  a  matter  of  fact,  a  matter  of  sense  ; 
and  here,  in  this  public  and  undeniable  fact,  we  have 
arrived  at  what  the  movement  considered  the  ulti- 
mate resolution  of  their  faith.  It  was  argued,  for 
instance,  "  A  private  Christian  may  put  what  mean- 
ing he  pleases  on  many  parts  of  Scripture,  and  no- 
one  ettn  hinder  him.  If  interfered  with,  he  can 
promptly  answer,  that  it  is  his  own  opinion,  and  may 
appeal  to  his  right  of  private  judgment.  But  he 
cannot  so  deal  with  antiquity  r  history  is  a  record  of 
facts ;  and  facts,  according  to  the  proverb,  are  stub- 
born things.7'*  And,  according^,  these  writers  ap- 
parently represented  the  Catholic  Church  as  having 
no  power  whatever  over  the  faith ;  her  Creed  was 
simply  a  public  matter  of  fact,  which  needed  as 
little  explanation  as  the  fact  of  her  own  existence. 
Hence  it  was  said,  "  The  humblest  and  meanest 
among  Christians  may  defend  the  faith  against  the 
whole  Church,  if  the  need  arise.  He  has  as  much 
stake  in  it,  and  as  much  right  to  it,  as  Bishop  or 
Archbishop ;  ...  all  that  learning  has  to  do  for 
him,  is  to  ascertain  the  fact,  what  is  the  meaning  of 
the  Creed  in  particular  points,  since  matter  of  opi- 
nion it  is  not,  any  more  than  the  history  of  the  rise 
and  spread  of  Christianity  itself,  "f 

Accordingly,  as  their  first  act,  when  they  were 


*  Proph.  Office,  p.  45. 
+  p.  292. 


14? 


once  set  off,  had  been  to  publish  Catenas  of  the  An- 
glican divines,  so  their  second  was  to  publish  trans- 
lations of  the  Fathers ;  viz.,  in  order  to  put  the  mat- 
ter out  of  their  own  hands,  and  throw  the  decision 
upon  the  private  judgment  of  no  one,  but  on  the 
common  judgment  of  the  whole  community,  Angli- 
cans and  Protestants,  at  once.  They  considered 
that  the  Fathers  had  hitherto  been  monopolized  by 
controversialists,  who  treated  them  merely  as  maga- 
zines of  passages  which  might  be  brought  forward  in 
argument,  mutilated  and  garbled,  for  the  occasion ; 
and  that  the  greatest  service  to  their  own  cause  was 
simply  to  publish  them.*  "  A  main  reason,"  it  was 
said,  "of  the  jealousy  with  which  Christians  of  this 
age  and  country  maintain  the  notion  that  truth  of 
doctrine  can  be  gained  from  Scripture  by  individuals 
is  this,  that  they  are  unwilling,  as  they  say,  to  be 
led  by  others  blindfold.  They  can  possess  and  read 
the  Scriptures ;  whereas,  of  traditions  they  are  no 
adequate  judges,  and  they  dread  priestcraft.  I  am 
not  here  to  enter  into  the  discussion  of  this  feeling, 
whether  praiseworthy  or  the  contrary.  However 
this  be,  it  does  seem  a  reason  for  putting  before 
them,  if  possible,  the  principal  works  of  the  Fathers, 
translated  as  Scripture  is ;  that  they  may  have,  by 
them,  what,  whether  used  or  not,  will  at  least  act  as 
a  check   upon  the  growth  of  an  undue  dependence 


*  See  this  brought  out  in  an  article  on  the  Apostolical  Fathers, 
in  the  "  British  Critic"  of  Jan.,  1839. 


148 

on  the  word  of  individual  teachers,  and  will  be  a 
something  to  consult,  if  they  have  reason  to  doubt 
the  Catholic  character  of  any  tenet  to  which  they 
are  invited  to  accede."* 

By  way  then  of  rescuing  the  faith  from  private 
teaching  on  the  one  hand,  and  private  judgment  on 
the  other,  it  was  proposed  to  publish  a  Library  of 
the  Fathers  translated  into  English.  And,  let  it  be 
observed,  in  pursuance  of  this  object,  the  Transla- 
tions were  to  be  presented  to  the  general  reader 
without  note  or  comment.  It  was  distinctly  stated 
in  the  Prospectus,  that  "  the  notes  shall  be  li- 
mited to  the  explanation  of  obscure  passages,  or 
the  removal  of  any  misapprehension  which  might 
not  improbably  arise."  And  this  was  so  strictly 
adhered  to  at  first,  that  the  translation  of  St.  Cyril's 
Catechetical  Lectures  was  criticised,  on  its  first  pub- 
lication, on  this  very  ground  ;f  and  it  was  asked  why 
his  account  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  was  not  reconciled 
by  the  Editor  with  the  Anglican  formularies,  when 
the  very  idea  of  the  latter  had  been  to  bring  out 
facts,  and  leave  the  result  to  a  judgment  more  au- 
thoritative than  his  own,  and  favorable  on  the  whole, 


*  Proph.  Office,  p.  203.  This  passage,  moreover,  negatives 
the  charge,  sometimes  advanced  against  the  agents  in  the  move- 
ment, that  they  wished  every  individual  Christian  to  gain  his 
faith  for  himself  by  study  of  the  Fathers.  They  have  enough  to 
bear  without  our  imagining  absurdities. 

f  The  rule  of  publishing  without  note  or  comment  was,  in  con- 
sequence of  such  objections,  soon  abandoned. 


149 

as  he  hoped,  in  the  event,  to  the  Church  to  which  he 
belonged.  "  We  can  no  more,"  he  had  said  in  the 
Preface,  "  than  have  patience,  and  recommend  pa 
tience  to  others  ;  and,  with  the  racer  in  the  Tragedy* 
look  forward  steadily  and  hopefully  to  the  event, i  in 
the  end  relying,'  when,  as  we  trust,  all  that  is  in- 
harmonious and  anomalous  in  the  details,  will  at 
length  he  practically  smoothed."* 

Such,  then,  was  the  clear  unvarying  line  of 
thought,  as  I  believed  it  to  be,  on  which  the  move- 
ment of  1833  commenced  and  proceeded,  as  regards 
the  questions  of  Church  authority  and  private  judg- 
ment. It  was  fancied  that  no  opportunity  could 
arise  for  the  exercise  of  private  judgment,  in  any 
public  or  important  matter.  The  Church  declared, 
whether  by  Prayer  Book  or  Episcopal  authority, 
what  was  to  be  said  or  done ;  and  private  judgment 
either  had  no  objection  to  make,  or  only  on  those 
minor  matters  where  there  was  a  propriety  in  its 
yielding  to  authority.  And  the  Church  declared 
what  her  divines  declared  ;  and  her  divines  declared 
what  the  Fathers  declared ;  and  what  the  Fathers 
declared  was  no  matter  of  private  judgment  at  all, 
but  a  matter  of  fact,  cognizable  by  all  who  chose  to 
read  their  writings.  Their  testimony  was  as  decisive 
and  clear  as  Pope's  Bull,  or  Definition  of  Council, 
or  catechisings  or  direction  of  any  individual  parish 

*  Pagexi. 


150 

priest.  There  was  no  room  for  two  opinions  on  the 
subject ;  and,  as  Catholics  consider  that  the  truth  is 
brought  home  to  the  soul  supernaturally,  so  that  the 
soul  sees  it  and  no  longer  reasons  it  out ;  so  in  some 
parallel  way  it  was  supposed  that  that  truth,  as  con- 
tained in  the  Fathers,  was  a  natural  fact,  recognized 
by  the  natural  and  ordinary  intelligence  of  mankind, 
as  soon  as  it  was  directed  towards  it. 

The  idea  then  of  the  so-called  Anglo- Catholic 
divines  was  simply  and  absolutely  submission  to  an 
external  authority ;  to  it  they  appealed,  to  it  they 
betook  themselves ;  there  they  found  a  haven  of 
rest;  thence  they  looked  out  upon  the  troubled 
surge  of  human  opinion,  and  upon  the  crazy  vessels 
which  were  laboring,  without  chart  or  compass,  upon 
it.  Judge  then  of  their  dismay,  when,  according  to 
the  Arabian  tale,  on  their  striking  their  anchors  into 
the  supposed  soil,  lighting  their  fires  on  it,  and  fixing 
in  it  the  poles  of  their  tents,  suddenly  their  island 
began  to  move,  to  heave,  to  splash,  to  frisk  to  and 
fro,  to  dive,  and  at  last  to  swim  away,  spouting  out 
inhospitable  jets  of  water  upon  the  credulous  mari- 
ners who  had  made  it  their  home.  And  such,  I 
suppose,  was  the  undeniable  fact ;  I  mean,  the  time 
at  length  came,  when,  first  of  all  turning  their  minds 
(some  of  them,  at  least)  more  carefully  to  the  doc- 
trinal controversies  of  the  early  Church,  they  saw 
distinctly  that  in  the  reasonings  of  the  Fathers, 
elicited  by  means  of  them,   and  in  the  decisions  of 


151 

authority,  in  which  they  issued,  were  contained  the 
rudiments  at  least,  the  anticipations,  the  justification 
of  what  they  had  been  accustomed  to  consider  the 
•corruptions  of  Rome.  And  if  only  one,  or  a  few  of 
them,  were  visited  with  this  conviction,  still  one  was 
sufficient,  of  course,  to  destroy  that  cardinal  point 
of  their  whole  system,  the  objective  perspicuity  and 
distinctness  of  the  teaching  of  the  Fathers.  But 
time  went  on,  and  there  was  no  mistaking  or  denying 
the  misfortune  which  was  impending  over  them. 
They  had  reared  a  goodly  house,  but  their  founda- 
tions were  falling  in.  The  soil  and  the  masonry 
both  were  bad.  The  Fathers  would  protect  "  Ro- 
manists" as  well  as  extinguish  Dissenters.  The 
Anglican  divines  would  misquote  the  Fathers,  and 
shrink  from  the  very  doctors  to  whom  they  appealed. 
The  Bishops  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  shy 
of  the  Bishops  of  the  fourth ;  and  the  Bishops  of 
the  nineteenth  were  shy  ot  the  Bishops  of  the  se- 
venteenth. The  ecclesiastical  courts  upheld  the 
sixteenth  century  against  the  seventeenth,  and,  un- 
conscious of  the  flagrant  irregularities  of  Protestant 
clergymen,  chastised  the  mild  misdemeanors  of  An- 
glo-Catholic. Soon  the  living  rulers  of  the  Esta- 
blishment began  to  move.  There  are  those  who, 
reversing  the  Roman's  maxim, *  are  wont  to  shrink 


*  "  Parcere  subjectis,  et  debellare  superbos ."  It  may  be  right 
here  to  say,  that  the  author  never  can  forget  the  great  kindness 
which  Cr,  Bagot,  at  that  time  Bishop  of  Oxford,  showed  him  on 


152 

from  the  contumacious,  aud  to  be  valiant  towards 
the  submissive ;  and  the  authorities  in  question 
gladly  availed  themselves  of  the  power  conferred  on 
them  by  the  movement  against  the  movement  itself. 
They  fearlessly  handselled  their  Apostolical  weapons 
upon  the  Apostolical  party.  One  after  another,  in 
long  succession,  they  took  up  their  song  and  their 
parable  against  it.  It  was  a  solemn  war- dance, 
which  they  executed  round  victims,  who  by  their 
very  principles  were  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  could 
only  eye,  with  disgust  and  perplexity,  this  most  un- 
accountable movement,  on  the  part  of  their  "  holy 
Fathers,  the  representatives  of  the  Apostles,  and 
the  Angels  of  the  Churches."  It  was  the  beginning 
of  the  end. 

My  brethren,  when  it  was  discovered  that  the 
Fathers  looked  coldly  upon  the  National  Church, 
and  that  the  instruments  of  the  movement  went  be- 
yond its  divines,  when  Bishops  spoke  against  them, 
and  Bishop's  courts  sentenced  them,  and  Universities 
degraded  them,  and  the  people  rose  against  them, 
from  that  day  their  "occupation  was  gone."  Their 
initial  principle,  their  basis,  external  authority,  was 
cut  from  under  them  ;  they  had  "  set  their  fortunes 
on  a  cast ;"  they  had  lost ;  henceforward  they  had 
nothing  left  for  them  but  to  shut  up  their  school, 

several  occasions.  He  also  has  to  notice  the  courtesy  of  Dr. 
Thirlwall's  language,  a  prelate  he  has  never  had  the  honor  of 
knowing. 


153 

and  retire  into  the  country.  Nothing  else  was  left 
for  them,  unless  indeed  they  took  up  some  other 
theory,  unless  they  changed  their  ground,  unless 
they  ceased  to  be  what  they  were,  and  became  what 
they  were  not ;  unless  they  belied  their  own  prin- 
ciples, and  strangely  forgot  their  own  luminous 
and  most  keen  convictions ;  unless  they  vindi- 
dicated  the  right  of  private  judgment,  took  up  some 
fancy  religion,  retailed  the  Fathers,  and  jobbed 
theology.  They  had  but  a  choice  of  doing  nothing 
at  all,  and  looking  out  for  truth  and  peace  elsewhere. 
And  now,  at  length,  I  am  in  a  condition  to  answer 
the  question,  which  you  have  proposed  for  my  con- 
sideration. You  ask  me  whether  you  canLOt  con- 
tinue what  you  were.  No,  my  brethren,  it  is  im- 
possible ;  you  cannot  recall  the  past;  you  cannot 
surround  yourselves  with  the  circumstances  which 
have  simply  erased  to  be.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
movement  you  disowned  private  judgment,  but 
now  if  you  would  remain  a  party,  you  must,  ^ith 
whatever  inconsistency,  profess  it ;— then,  you  were 
a  party  only  externally,  that  is,  not  in  y our  wishes 
and  feelings,  but  merely  because  you  were  seen  to 
differ  from  others  in  matter  of  fact,  when  the  world 
looked  at  you,  whether  you  would  or  no ;  but  now 
you  will  be  a  party  knowingly  and  on  principle,  and 
will  be  erected  on  a  party  basis,  You  cannot  be  what 
you  were.  You  will  no  longer  be  Anglo -Catholic, 
but  Patristico- Protestants.  You  will  be  obliged  to 
7# 


154 

frame  a  religion  for  yourselves,  and  then  to  maintain 
it  is  that  very  truth,  pure  and  celestial,  which  the 
Apostles  promulgated.  You  will  be  induced  of  ne- 
cessity to  put  together  some  speculation  of  your  own, 
and  then  to  fancy  it  of  importance  enough  to  din  it 
into  the  ears  of  your  neighbors,  to  plague  the  world 
with  it,  and,  if  you  have  success,  to  convulse  your 
own  communion  with  the  imperious  inculcation  of 
doctrines  which  you  can  never  engraft  upon  it. 

For  me,  my  dear  brethren,  did  I  know  myself 
well,  I  should  doubtless  find  I  was  open  to  the  temp- 
tation, as  well  as  others,  to  take  a  line  of  my  own, 
or,  what  is  called,  to  set  up  for  myself;  but  what- 
ever might  be  my  real  in6rmity  in  this  matter,  I 
should,  from  mere  common  sense  and  common  deli- 
cacy, hide  it  from  myself,  and  give  it  some  good 
name  in  order  to  make  it  palatable.  I  never  could 
get  myself  to  say,  "Listen  to  me,  for  I  have  some- 
thing great  to  tell  you,  which  no  one  else  knows,  but 
of  which  there  is  no  manner  of  doubt. *'  I  should 
be  kept  from  such  extravagance  from  an  intense 
sense  of  the  intellectual  absurdity,  which,  in  my 
feelings,  such  a  claim  would  involve ;  which  would 
shame  me  as  keenly,  and  humble  me  in  my  own  sight 
as  utterly,  as  some  moral  impropriety  or  degradation* 
I  should  feel  I  was  simply  making  a  fool  of  myself, 
and  taking  on  myself  in  figure  that  penance,  of 
which  we  read  in  the  Lives  of  Saints,  of  playing 
antics  and  making  faces  in  the  market  place.     JNot 


165 

religious  principle,  but  even  worldly  pride,  would 
keep  me  from  so  unworthy  an  exhibition.  I  can 
understand,  my  brethren,  I  can  sympathise  with 
those  old-world  thinkers,  whose  commentators  are 
Mant  and  D'Oyly,  whose  theologian  is  Tomlin, 
whose  ritualist  is  Wheatly,  and  whose  canonist  is 
Burns  i  who  are  fond  of  their  Jewels  and  their 
Chillingworths,  whose  works  they  have  never  opened, 
and  toast  Granmer  and  Ridley,  and  William  of 
Orange,  as  the  founders  of  their  religion 4  In  these 
times  three  hundred  years  is  a  respectable  antiquity ; 
and  traditions,  recognised  in  law  courts,  and  built 
into  the  structure  of  society,  may  without  violence 
be  considered  as  immemorial.  Those  also  I  can 
understand,  who  take  their  stand  upon  the  Prayer 
Book ;  or  who  honestly  profess  to  follow  the  con* 
tenmi  of  Anglican  divines*  as  the  Voice  of  authority 
and  the  standard  of  faiths  Moreover,  1  can  quite 
enter  into  the  sentiment,  with  which  members  of  the 
liberal  and  infidel  school  investigate  the  history  and 
the  documents  of  the  early  Church,  They  profess 
a  View  of  Christianity,  trite?  than  the  World  has 
ever  had  f  nOf>  on  the  assumption  of  their  princi- 
ples Is  thsrn  anything  shocking  to  good  sense  in  ihk 
profusion  Thet  look  upon  the  Christian  religion 
as  Something  simply  human  \  and  there  id  m  reason 
at  all,  why  a  phenomenon  d  I  should  not  be 

better  understood  id  its  origin  and  nature*  <te  years 
proeisd*    It  !?*  indeed  m  iv/  .  I  to  a^ 


156 

sart,  that  a  revelation,  given  from  God  to  man, 
should  lie  unknown  or  mistaken  for  eighteen  cen- 
turies, and  now  at  length  should  be  suddenly  decy- 
phered  by  individuals ;  but  it  is  quite  intelligible  to 
assert,  and  plausible  to  argue,  that  a  human  fact 
should  be  more  philosophically  explained  than  it  was 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  and  more  exactly  as- 
certained than  it  was  a  thousand.  History  is  at 
this  day  undergoing  a  process  of  revolution;  the 
science  of  criticism,  the  disinterment  of  antiquities, 
the  unrolling  of  manuscripts,  the  interpretation  of 
inscriptbns,  have  thrown  us  into  a  new  world  of 
thought;  characters  and  events  come  forth  trans- 
formed in  the  process  ;  romance,  prejudice,  local 
tradition,  party  bias,  are  no  longer  accepted  as  gua- 
rantees of  truth ;  the  order  and  mutual  relation  of 
events  are  re  adjusted;  the  springs  and  the  scope 
of  actions  are  reversed.  Were  Christianity  a  mere 
work  of  man,  it  too  might  turn  out  something  differ- 
ent from  what  it  has  hitherto  been  considered ;  its 
history  might  require  re -writing,  as  the  history  of 
Rome,  or  of  the  earth's  strata,  or  of  languages,  or 
of  chemical  action.  A  Catholic  neither  deprecates 
nor  fears  such  inquiry,  though  he  abhors  the  spirit 
in  which  it  is  conducted.  He  is  willing  that  infi- 
delity should  do  its  work  against  the  Church,  know- 
ing that  she  will  be  found  just  where  she  was,  when 
the  assault  is  over.  It  is  nothing  to  him,  though  her 
enemies  put  themselves  to  the  trouble  of  denying 


157 

everything  that  has  hitherto  been  taught,  and  begin 
with  constructing  her  history  all  over  again,  being 
quite  sure  they  will  end  at  length  with  a  compulsory 
admission  of  what  at  first  they  so  wantonly  dis- 
carded. But  what  he  would  feel  so  prodigious  is 
this, — that  such  as  you,  my  brethren,  should  con- 
sider Christianity  given  from  heaven  once  for  all, 
should  protest  against  private  judgment,  should  pro- 
fess to  transmit  what  you  have  received,  and  yet, 
from  diligent  study  of  the  Fathers,  from  your  tho- 
rough knowledge  of  St.  Basil  and  St.  Chrysostom, 
from  living,  as  you  say,  in  the  atmosphere  of  an- 
tiquity, should  come  forth  into  open  day  with  your 
new  edition  of  the  Catholic  faith,  different  from  that 
held  in  any  existing  body  of  Christians,  which  not 
half  a  dozen  men  all  over  the  world  would  honor 
with  their  imprimatur ;  and  then,  withal,  should 
be  as  positive  in  practice  about  its  truth  in  every 
part,  as  if  the  voice  of  mankind  were  with  you  in- 
stead of  against  you.  You  are  a  body  of  yesterday ; 
you  are  a  drop  in  the  ocean  of  professing  Christians  : 
yet  you  would  give  the  law  to  priest  and  prophet ; 
and  you  fancy  it  a  humble  office  forsooth,  suited  to 
humble  men,  to  testify  the  very  truth  of  revelation 
to  a  fallen  generation,  or  rather  to  almost  a  bi-mil- 
lenary,  which  has  been  in  unintermittent  traditionary 
error.  You  have  a  mission  to  teach  the  National 
Church,  which  is  to  teach  the  British  empire,  which 
is  to  teach  the  world ;  you  are  more  learned  than 


158 

Greece ;  you  are  purer  than  Rome ;  you  know  better 

than  St.  Bernard ;  you  judge  how  far  St.  Thomas 

was  right,  and  where  he  is  to  be  read  with  caution, 

or  held  up  to  blame.     You  can  bring  to  light  juster 

views  of  grace,   or  of  penance,  or  of  invocation  of 

saints,  than  St.  Gregory  or  St.  Augustine, 

"  qualia  vincunt, 
Pythagoren,  Anytique  reum,  doctumque  Platona." 

This  is  what  you  can  do;  yes,  and  when  you  have 

done  all,  to  what  have  you  attained  ?  to  do  just  what 

heretics  have  done  before  you,  and  have  thereby  in* 

curred  the  anathema  of  Holy  Church.     Such  was 

Jansenius ;  for   of  him  we    are   told,    "  From   the 

commencement  of  his  theological  studies,  when  he 

began  to  read,  with  the  schoolmen,  the  holy  Fathers, 

and  especially  Augustine,  he  at  once  saw,  as  he  con* 

fessed,   that  most  of  the   schoolmen  Went  far  astray 

ffoui  that  holy  Doctor's  view,  in  that  capital  article 

of  grace  and  free  will.     He  sometimes  owned  to  his 

friends,  that  he  had  read  over  more  than  ten  times 

the  entire  works  of  Augustine,  with  lively  attention, 

and  diligent  annotation,  and  his  books  against  the 

Pelagians  at  least  thirty  tiroes  from   beginning  to 

end.     He  said  that  no  mind,  whether  Aristotle  of 

Archimedes,  or  any  other  under  the  heavens,  was 

equal  to  Augustine.  .  .  I  have  heard  him  say  more 

than  once,  that  life  would  be  most  delightful  to  him, 

though  on  some  ocean-isle  or  rock,  apart  from  all 

human  society,  had  be  but  his  Augustine  with  him* 


159 

In  a  word,  after  God  and  Holy  Scripture,  Augustine 
was  his  all  in  all.  However,  for  many  years  be  had 
to  struggle  with  his  old  opinions,  before  he  put  them 
all  off,  and  arrived  at  the  intimate  sense  of  St.  Au- 
gustine. .  .  ,  For  this  work,  he  often  said,  he  was 
specially  born ;  and  that,  when  he  had  finished  it, 
he  should  be  most  ready  to  die."*  Such  was  an- 
other nearer  nome,  on  whom  Burnet  bestows  this 
panegyric  : — »"  Cranmer,"  says  he,  "  was  at  great 
pains  to  collect  the  sense  of  ancient  writers  upon  all 
the  heads  of  religion,  by  which  he  might  be  directed 
in  such  an  important  matter.  I  have  seen  two  vol- 
umes in  folio,  written  with  his  own  hand,  containing, 
upon  all  the  heads  of  religion,  a  vast  heap  cf  places 
of  Scripture,  and  quotations  out  of  ancient  Fathers, 
and  later  doctors  and  schoolmen  by  which  he  go- 
verned himself  in  that  work." 

And  now,  my  brethren,  will  it  not  be  so,  as  I  have 
said,  of  simple  necessity,  if  you  attempt  at  this  time 
to  perpetuate  in  the  National  Church  a  form  of 
opinion  which  the  National  Church  disowns  ?  You 
do  not  follow  its  Bishops ;  you  disown  its  existing 
traditions ;  you  are  discontented  with  its  divines ;  you 
protest  against  its  law-courts;  you  shrink  from  its 
laity ;  you  outstrip  its  Prayer  Book.  You  have  in 
all  respects  an  eclectic  or  an  original  religion  of  your 
own.     You  dare  not  stand  or  fall  by  Andrewes,  or 

*  Synops,  Vit.ap.Opp.  1643. 


160 

by  Laud,  or  by  Hammond,  or  by  Bull,  or  by  Thorn- 
dike,  or  by  all  of  them  together.  There  is  a  con-' 
sensus  of  divines,  stronger  than  for  Baptismal 
Regeneration  or  the  Apostolical  succession,  that 
Rome  is,  strictly  and  literally,  an  an ti- Christian 
power ;— liberals  and  High  Churchmen  in  your  com- 
munion in  this  agree  with  Evangelicals ;  you  put  it 
aside.  There  is  a  consensus  against  Transubstan- 
tiation,  besides  the  declaration  of  the  Article ;  yet 
many  of  you  hold  it  notwithstanding.  Nearly  all 
your  divines,  if  not  all,  call  themselves  Protestants, 
and  you  anathematize  the  name.  Who  makes  the 
concessions  to  Catholics  which  you  do,  yet  remains 
separate  from  them  ?  Who,  among  Anglican  au- 
thorities, would  speak  of  Penance  as  a  sacrament, 
as  you  do?  Who  of  them  encourages,  much  less 
insists  upon,  auricular  confession,  as  you  ?  or  makes 
fasting  an  obligation  ?  or  ases  the  crucifix  and  the 
rosary  ?  or  reserves  the  consecrated  bread  ?  or  be- 
lieves in  miracles  as  existing  in  your  communion  ?  or 
administers,  as  I  believe  you  do,  Extreme  Unction  ? 
In  some  points  you  prefer  Rome,  in  others  Greece, 
in  others  England,  in  others  Scotland ;  and  of  that 
preference  your  own  private  judgment  is  the  ultimate 
sanction. 

What  am  I  to  say  in  answer  to  conduct  so  pre- 
posterous ?  Say  you  go  by  any  authority  whatever, 
and  I  shall  know  where  to  find  you,  and  I  shall 
respect   you.     Swear    by   any  school   of   religion, 


161 

old  or  modem,  by  Rouge's  Church,  cr  the  Evan- 
gelical Alliance,  nay,  by  yourselves,  and  I  shall 
know  what  you  mean,  and  will  listen  to  you. 
But  do  not  come  to  me  with  the  latest  fashion  of 
opinion  which  the  world  has  seen,  and  protest  to  me 
that  it  is  the  oldest.  Do  not  come  to  me  at  this 
time  of  day  with  views  palpably  new,  isolated,  ori- 
ginal, sui  generis,  warranted  old  neither  by  Christian 
nor  unbeliever,  and  challenge  me  to  answer  what  I 
really  have  not  the  patience  to  read.  Life  is  not 
long  enough  for  such  trifles.  Go  elsewhere,  not  to 
me,  if  you  wish  to  make  a  proselyte.  Your  incon- 
sistency, my  dear  brethren,  is  on  your  very  front. 
Nor  pretend  that  you  are  but  executing  the  sa- 
cred duty  of  defending  your  own  communion.  Your 
Church  does  not  thank  you  for  a  defence,  which  she 
has  no  dream  of  appropriating.  You  innovate  on 
her  professions  of  doctrine,  and  then  you  bid  us  love 
her  for  your  innovations.  You  cling  to  her  for  what 
she  denounces ;  and  you  almost  anathematize  us  for 
taking  a  step  which  you  would  please  her  best  by 
taking  also.  You  call  it  restless,  impatient,  undu- 
tiful  in  us,  to  do  what  she  would  have  us  do ;  and 
you  think  it  a  loving  and  confiding  course  to  believe, 
not  her,  but  you.  She  is  to  teach,  and  we  to  hear, 
only  according  to  your  private  researches  into  St. 
Chrysostom  and  St.  Augustine.  "  I  began  myself 
with  doubting  and  inquiring,"  you  seem  to  say;  "  I 
departed  from  the  teaching  I  received  ;  I  was  edu- 


162 

cated  in  some  older  type  of  Anglicanism ;  in  the 
school  of  NewtoD,  Cecil,  and  Scott,  or  in  the  Bart- 
lett's  Buildings  School ;  or  in  the  Liberal  Whig 
School.  I  was  a  Dissenter,  or  a  Wesleyan,  and  by 
study  and  thought  I  became  an  Anglo-Catholic. 
And  then  I  read  the  Fathers,  and  I  have  determined 
what  works  are  genuine,  and  what  are  not ;  which 
of  them  apply  to  all  times,  which  are  occasional ; 
which  historical,  and  which  doctrinal ;  what  opinions 
are  private,  what  authoritative  ;  what  they  only 
seem  to  hold,  what  they  ought  to  hold ;  what  are 
fundamental,  what  ornamental.  Having  thus  mea- 
sured and  cut  and  put  together  my  creed  by  my  own 
proper  intellect,  by  my  own  lucubrations,  and  differ- 
ing from  the  whole  world  in  my  results,  I  distinctly 
bid  you,  I  solemnly  warn  you,  not  to  do  as  I  have 
done,  but  to  take  what  I  have  found,  to  revere  it,  to 
use  it,  to  believe  it,  for  it  is  the  teaching  of  the  old 
Fathers,  and  of  your  Mother  the  Church  of  England. 
Take  my  word  for  it,  that  this  is  the  very  truth  of 
Christ ;  deny  your  own  reason,  for  I  know  better 
than  you,  and  it  is  as  clear  as  day  that  some  moral 
fault  in  you  is  the  cause  of  your  differing  from  me. 
It  is  pride,  or  vanity,  or  self-reliance,  or  fulness  of 
bread.  You  require  some  medicine  for  your  soul; 
you  must  fast ;  you  must  make  a  general  confession ; 
and  look  very  sharp  to  yourself,  for  you  are  already 
next  door  to  a  rationalist  or  an  infidel." 

Surely  I  have  not  exaggerated,  my  brethren,  what- 


163 

you  will  be  obliged  to  say,  if  you  take  the  course 
which  you  are  projecting;  but  the  point  immediately 
before  us  is  something  short  of  this  ;  it  is,  whether 
a  party  in  the  Establishment,  formed  on  such  prin- 
ciples, (and  as  things  are  now  it  can  be  formed  on  no 
other,)  can  in  any  sense  be  called  a  genuine  con- 
tinuation of  the  Apostolical  party  of  twenty  years 
ago?  The  basis  of  that  party  was  the  professed 
abnegation  of  private  judgment ;  your  basis  is  the 
professed  exercise  of  it.  If  you  are  really  children 
of  it  as  in  1833,  you  must  have  nothing  to  say  to  it 
in  1850, 


LECTURE  VI. 


THE  PROVIDENTIAL  DIRECTION  OF  THE  MOVEMENT  OP 
1833  NOT  TOWARDS  A  BRANCH  CHURCH. 

There  are  persons  who  may  think  that  the  line  of 
thought,  which  I  pursued  in  my  last  two  Lectures, 
had  somewhat  of  a  secular  and  political  cast,  and 
was  deficient  in  that  simplicity  which  becomes  an 
inquiry  after  religious  truth.  We  are  inquiring,  you 
may  say,  whether  the  National  Church  is  in  posses- 
sion of  the  Sacraments,  whether  we  can  obtain  the 
grace  of  Christ,  necessary  for  our  salvation,  at  its 
hands  ?  On  this  great  question  depends  our  leaving 
its  communion,  or  not ;  but  you  answer  us  by  simply 
bidding  us  consider  which  course  of  action  will  look 
best,  what  the  world  expects  of  us,  how  posterity 
will  judge  of  us,  what  termination  is  most  logically 
consistent  with  our  commencement,  what  are  to  be 
the  historical  fortunes  in  prospect,  of  a  large  body 
of  men,  variously  circumstanced,  and  subject  to  a 
variety  of  influences  from  without  and  within.     It 


165 

is  a  personal,  an  individual  question  to  each  inquirer  5 
but  you  would  have  me  view  it  as  a  political  game , 
in  which  each  side  makes  moves,  and  just  now  it  is 
our  turn,  and  not  as  a  matter  of  religious  conviction, 
duty,  and  responsibility. 

But  thus  to  speak  is  mistaking  the  argument  al- 
together. First,  I  am  not  addressing  those  who 
have  no  doubt  whatever  about  the  divine  origin  of 
the  Established  Church.  I  am  not  attempting  to 
rouse,  or,  as  some  would  call  it,  unsettle  them.  If 
there  be  such, — for,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  almost  doubt 
their  existence, — I  pass  them  by.  I  am  contem- 
plating that  not  inconsiderable  number,  who  are,  in 
a  true  sense,  though  in  various  degrees,  and  but  in 
various  modes,  inquirers  :  who,  on  the  one  hand, 
have  no  doubt  at  all  of  the  great  Apostolical  prin- 
ciples which  are  stamped  upon  the  face  of  the  early 
Church,  and  were  the  life  of  the  movement  of  1833  ; 
and  who,  on  the  other  hand,  are  not  without  doubt 
about  those  principles  being  the  property  and  the 
life  of  the  National  Church ;  who  have  fears,  grave 
anxieties,  or  vague  misgivings,  as  the  case  may  be, 
lest  that  communion  be  not  a  treasure-house  and 
fount  of  grace ;  and  then  again,  all  at  once  are 
afraid  that,  after  all,  perhaps  it  is,  and  that  it  is 
their  own  fault  that  they  are  blind  to  the  fact,  and 
that  it  is  undutifulness  in  them  to  question  it ;  who, 
after  even  their  most  violent  doubts,  have  seasons  of 
relenting  and  compunction ;  and  who  at  length  are 


166 

so  perplexed  by  reason  of  the  clear  light  pouring  iu 
on  them  from  above,  yet  by  the  secret  whisper  the 
while,  that  they  ought  to  doubt  their  own  percep- 
tions, because  (as  they  are  told)  they  are  impatient, 
of  self-willed,  or  excited,  or  dreaming,  and  have  lost 
the  faculty  of  looking  at  things  in  a  natural,  straight- 
forward way,  that  at  length  they  do  not  know  what 
they  hold  and  what  they  do  not  hold,  or  where  they 
stand,  and  are  in  conflict  within,  and  almost  in  a 
state  of  anarchy  and  recklessness.  Now,  to  persons 
in  this  cruel  stiife  of  thought,  I  offar  the  considera- 
tion on  which  I  have  been  dwelling,  as  a  sort  of 
diversion  to  their  harassed  minds ;  as  an  argument 
of  fact,  external  to  themselves,  and  over  which  they 
have  no  power,  which  is  of  a  nature  to  arbitrate  and 
decide  for  them  between  their  antagonist  judgments. 
You  wish  to  know  whether  the  Establishment  is 
what  you  began  by  assuming  it  to  be, — the  grace- 
giving  Church  of  God.  If  it  be,  you  and  your  prin- 
ciples will  surely  find  your  position  there  and  your 
home.  When  you  proclaim  it  to  be  Apostolical,  it 
will  smile  on  you ;  when  you  kneel  down  and  ask  it3 
blessing,  it  will  stretch  its  hands  over  you ;  when 
you  would  strike  at  heresy,  it  will  arm  you  for  the 
fight;  when  you  wind  your  dangerous  way  with 
steady  tread  between  Sabellius,  Nestorius,  and 
Eutyches,  between  Pelagius  and  Calvin,  it  will  fol- 
low you  with  anxious  eyes  and  a  beating  heart; 
when  you  proclaim  its  relationship  to  Rome   and 


16? 

Greece,  it  will  in  transport  embrace  you  as  its  own 
dear  children ;  you  will  sink  happily  into  its  arms, 
you  will  repose  upon  its  breast,  you  will  recognize 
your  mother,  and  be  at  peace.  If,  however,  on  the 
contrary,  you  find  that  the  more  those  great  princi- 
ples, which  you  have  imbibed  from  St.  Athanasius 
and  St.  Augustine,  and  which  have  become  the  life 
and  the  form  of  your  moral  and  intellectual  being, 
vegetate  and  expand  within  you,  the  more  awkward 
and  unnatural  you  find  your  position  there,  and  the 
more  difficult  its  explanation ;  if  there  is  no  lying, 
or  standing,  or  sitting,  or  kneeling,  or  stooping  there, 
in  any  possible  attitude,  but,  as  if  in  the  tyrant's 
cage,  when  you  would  rest  your  head,  your  legs  are 
forced  out  between  the  Articles,  and  when  you  would 
relieve  your  back,  your  head  strikes  against  the 
Prayer  Book ;  when,  place  yourselves  as  you  will, 
on  the  right  side  or  the  left,  and  try  to  keep  as  still 
as  you  can,  your  flesh  is  ever  being  punctured  and 
probed  by  Episcopate,  laity,  and  nine-tenths  of  the 
Clergy ;  is  it  not  as  plain  as  day  that  the  Establish- 
ment is  not  your  place,  since  it  is  no  place  for  your 
principles  ?  They  are  not  there  professed,  they  are 
not  there  realized.  That  mystical  sacramental  sys- 
tem, on  which  your  thoughts  live,  which  was  once 
in  the  world,  as  you  know  well,  and  therefore  must 
be  always,  is  not  the  inheritance  of  Anglicanism, 
but  must  have  been  left  to  others ;  it  must  be  sought 
elsewhere.     You  have  doubts  on  the  point  already ; 


168 

Well,  here  is  the  confirmation  of  them.  I  have  no 
wish,  then,  to  substitute  an  external  and  political 
View  for  your  personal  serious  inquiry.  I  am  but 
assisting  you  in  that  inquiry  ;  I  am  deciding  existing 
doubts,  which  belong  to  yourselves,  by  an  external 
fact,  which  is  as  admissible,  surely,  in  such  a  matter, 
as  the  allegation  of  miracles  would  be,  or  any  other 
evidence  of  the  kind ;  for  the  same  God  who  works 
in  you  individually,  is  working  in  the  public  and 
historical  course  of  things  also. 

I  think,  then,  that  in  my  last  Lectures  I  have 
proved,  not  adequately,  for  it  would  take  many  words 
to  do  justice  to  a  proof  so  abundant  in  materials, 
but  as  far  as  time  allowed,  and  as  was  necessary  for 
those  who  would  pursue  the  thought,  that  the  move- 
ment to  which  you  and  I  belong,  looks  away  from 
the  Establishment,  that  "  Let  us  go  hence,"  is  its 
motto.  I  cannot  doubt  you  would  agree  with  me  in 
this,  did  you  not  belong  to  it,  did  you  disbelieve  its 
principles,  were  you  merely  disinterested,  dispassion- 
ate lookers-on :  judge  then  as  disbelieving,  act  as 
believing  them.  If  the  movement  be  a  providential 
work,  it  has  a  providential  scope ;  if  that  scope  be 
not  a  coalition  with,  or  a  party  in,  the  Establishment, 
as  I  have  been  proving,  what  is  it?  Is  it  towards 
Greece,  or  is  it  towards  America,  or  is  it  towards 
Scotland,  or  is  it  towards  Home  ?  This  is  the  sub- 
ject which  has  next  to  be  considered,  and  to  which, 
in  part,  I  shall  address  myself  to-day. 


169 

But,  first,  there  is  a  point  to  be  cleared  up. 
Either  the  movement  is  not  from  God,  or  the  Es- 
tablishment is  not :  we  must  abjure  our  principles, 
or  abandon  our  communion.  If  we  abandon  our 
communion,  we  do  so  as  denying  that  it  is  from  God ; 
if  we  continue  in  it,  we  do  so  as  not  denying  it.  We 
leave  the  Establishment  as  a  something  human 
which  has  been  imposed  upon  us  as  something  di- 
vine. We  leave  the  Establishment  in  order  to  gain 
elsewhere  that  grace  and  that  salvation  which  we 
cannot  find  there.  This  being  considered,  it  is  a 
confusion  of  thought  to  reason  and  to  determine  on 
the  subject,  as  many  men  have  done  before  now. 
Some  years  ago,  when  certain  members  of  the  Es- 
tablishment were  contemplating  a  submission  to  the 
Holy  See,  the  Anglican  prints  suggested  to  them, 
that  in  that  case  their  becoming  course  was,  to  quit 
the  country  for  ever,  and  not  to  embarrass  their 
friends  with  their  presence.  It  was  supposed  to  be 
their  duty  to  be  content  with  saving  their  own  souls, 
and  then  to  get  out  of  the  way,  and  not  to  contem- 
plate the  souls  of  others,  however  dear  to  them ; 
and,  as  if  they  still  acknowledged  the  Establishment, 
which  they  were  leaving,  to  be  the  Catholic  Church, 
to  retire  to  some  region  where,  without  offending 
others,  their  taste  could  be  gratified  by  a  Christianity, 
not  truer,  indeed,  nor  safer,  but  more  to  their  mind. 
But,  my  dear  brethren,  such  a  view  arises  from  a 
simple  insensibility  to  a  truth,  as  obvious  as  it  is 


170 

solemn,  that  the  choice  of  a  religion  is  a  question  of 
salvation.  It  is  not  a  question  of  mere  historical 
fact,  as  whether  St.  Joseph  came  to  Glastonbury,  or 
Paul  IV.  was  severe  with  Elizabeth ;  or  of  archi- 
tecture, as  whether  the  arch  should  be  round  or 
pointed,  and  altars  of  stone  or  of  wood ;  or  of  an- 
tiquities, as  whether  primitive  baptism  was  by  im- 
mersion; or  of  taste,  as  whether  the  sign  of  the  cross 
should  be  made  from  left  to  right,  or  from  right  to 
left,  or  prayers  should  be  said  fast  or  slow :  but  it  is 
a  question  of  Church  or  no  Church,  of  sacraments 
or  not,  of  life  or  death,  of  duty  or  sin.  The  very 
fact  of  leaving  the  Establishment  is  a  denial  that 
there  is  anything  to  leave  ;  it  is  an  ignoring  of  its 
presence.  What,  then,  has  leaving  the  Establish- 
ment to  do  with  leaving  the  country?  How  can  I 
recognize  what  I  ignore  ?  How  can  I  defer  to  what 
I  denounce  ?  How  can  that  exist  on  my  leaving  it^ 
which,  when  I  purposed  leaving  it,  existed  not? 
How  can  its  extinction  be  its  revival  ?  Again,  how 
can  I  think  it  cast  out  from  God's  countenance,  yet 
a  fit  nurse  of  His  children  ?  How  can  I  think  it  a 
fraud,  yet  a  pious  one  ?  How  can  I  leave  it  myself, 
without  wishing  all  others  to  do  as  I  ?  How  can  I 
retire  abroad,  when  I  might  do  work  at  home  ?  How 
can  I  live  in  peace,  when  I  might  be  a  soldier  of 
Christ?  Persons  wonder  that  converts  should  be 
what  they  call  bitter  against  the  Establishment,  and 
think  it  a  credit  to  them  to  treat  it  with  considera- 


171 

tion.  Certainly  it  is  wrong  to  be  bitter,  but  it  is 
wrong  also  to  call  evil  good,  and  to  countenance 
error.  If  the  Establishment  be  true,  remain  in  it ; 
if  it  be  false,  confront  it.  Do  not  give  place  to  it ; 
do  not  leave  it  in  possession  of  its  usurped  territory; 
do  not  imply  by  your  conduct  that,  in  fact,  the 
Catholic  Church  cannot  be  in  England  :  the  Catholic 
Church  is  everywhere,  and  as  soon  as  you  come  to 
see  that  the  Establishment  is  not  the  Catholic  Church 
in  England,  that  moment  you  are  sure  that  some 
other  body  is. 

Therefore,  my  brethren,  if  so  it  is  that  you  have 
followed  me  in  my  last  Lectures  in  the  conclusion  to 
which  I  came,  that  the  principles  of  1833  have  no 
home  in  the  National  Church,  I  relieve  you  from  all 
fears  of  expatriation  as  its  consequence.  Your  first 
step  is  secession,  your  second  need  not  be  exile  ;  you 
will  have  to  make  sacrifices  enough,  but  this  is  not 
one  of  them.  Such  a  notion  is  the  reasoning  of  the 
inconsistent,  or  the  judgment  of  the  unreal.  You 
need  not  settle  in  Rome,  or  in  Paris,  or  in  Siberia, 
or  in  Greece,  or  in  Scotland,  or  in  the  United  States 
of  America.  You  may  remain  where  you  are ;  as 
far  as  schism  goes,  you  are  at  liberty  to  introduce, 
you  are  free  to  join,  any  priesthood  you  will.  You 
may  remain  at  home,  and  be  a  Jansenist,  or  a  Rus- 
sian, or  a  Greek,  or  an  Arminian,  or  a  Chaldee,  or  a 
Copt,  or  what  you  call  a  Roman  Catholic.  It  is  a 
question  of  doctrine  and  of  sacramental  grace  which 


112 

you  have  to  decide,  and  nothing  else.  You  cannot 
affront  the  Establishment  more  emphatically  than  by 
your  act  of  abjuring  it;  you  have  done  your  all  5 
you  have  pronounced  it  dead, — bury  it. 

But  now,  before  you  go  on  to  select,  out  of  all  the 
rival  claimants  upon  your  notice,  the  particular  sue-5 
cession  and  priesthood  which  you  are  to  introduce 
into  England,  I  am  going  to  offer  you  a  suggestion 
which,  if  it  approves  itself  to  you,  will  do  away  with 
the  opportunity,  or  the  possibility,  of  choice  alto- 
gether. It  will  reduce  the  claimants  to  one.  Be- 
fore considering,  then,  whither  you  shall  betake  your- 
selves, and  what  you  shall  be,  bear  with  me  while  I 
give  you  one  piece  of  advice ;  it  is  this : — Have 
nothing  to  do  with  a  "  Branch  Church."  You  have 
had  enough  experience  of  branch  churches  already, 
and  you  know  very  well  what  they  are.  Depend 
upon  it,  such  as  is  one,  such  is  another.  They  may 
differ  in  accidents  certainly ;  but,  after  all,  a  branch 
is  a  branch,  and  no  branch  is  a  tree.  Depend  on  it, 
my  brethren,  it  is  not  worth  while  leaving  one  branch 
for  another.  While  you  are  doing  so  great  a  work? 
do  it  thoroughly  ;  do  it  once  for  all ;  change  for  the 
better.  Rather  than  go  to  another  branch,  remain 
where  you  are ;  do  not  put  yourselves  to  trouble  for 
nothing ;  do  not  sacrifice  this  world,  without  gaining 
the  next.     Now  let  us  consider  this  point  attentively. 

By  a  Branch  Church  is  meant,  I  suppose,  if  we 
interpret  the  metaphor,  a  church  separate  from  its 


173 

stem ;  and  if  we  ask  what  is  meant  by  the  stem,  I 
suppose  it  means  the  "  Universal  Church,"  as  you 
are  accustomed  to  call  it,  The  Catholic  Church 
indeed  is  one  kingdom  or  society,  divisible  into  parts, 
each  of  which  is  in  intercommunion  with  each  other 
and  with  the  whole,  as  the  members  of  a  human 
body.  This  Catholic  Church,  I  suppose  you  would 
say,  has  ceased  to  exist,  or  at  least  is  in  deliquium, 
for  you  will  not  give  the  name  to  us,  nor  do  you  take 
it  yourselves,  and  scarcely  ever  use  the  phrase  at  all, 
except  in  the  Creed;  but  the  "  Universal  Church" 
is  the  name  you  give  to  the  whole  body  of  professing 
Christians  all  over  the  world,  whatever  their  faith, 
origin,  and  traditioDS,  provided  they  lay  claim  to  an 
Apostolical  succession ;  which  whole  is  divisible  into 
portions  or  branches,  each  of  them  independent  of 
the  whole,  discordant  one  with  another  in  doctrine 
and  ritual,  destitute  of  mutual  intercommunion,  and 
more  frequently  in  actual  warfare,  portion  with  por- 
tion, than  in  a  state  of  neutrality.  Such  is  pretty 
nearly  what  you  mean  by  a  Branch,  allowing  for 
differences  of  opinion  on  the  subject;  such,  for  in- 
stance, is  the  Russian  Branch,  which  denounces  the 
Pope  as  a  usurper ;  such  the  Papal,  which  anathe- 
matizes the  Protestantism  of  the  Anglican ;  such  the 
Anglican,  which  reprobates  the  devotions  and  scorns 
the  rites  of  the  Russian;  such  the  Scotch,  which 
has  changed  the  Eucharistic  service  of  the  Anglican ; 
such  the  American,  which  has  put  aside  its  Athana- 
sian  Creed. 


174 

Such,  I  say,  is  a  Branch  Church,  and  it  is  vir- 
tually synonymous  with  a  National;  for  though  it 
may  be  in  fact  but  one  out  of  many  communions  in 
a  nation,  it  is  intended,  by  its  very  mission,  as 
pxeacher  and  evangelist,  to  spread  through  the  na- 
tion ;  nor  has  it  done  its  duty  till  it  has  so  spread, 
for  it  must  be  supposed  to  have  the  promise  of  suc- 
cess as  well  as  the  mission.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
cannot  flow  out  beyond  the  nation,  for  the  very  prin- 
ciple of  demarcation  between  Branch  and  Branch  is 
the  distinction  of  Nation  or  State;  to  the  Nation 
then  or  State  is  it  limited,  and  beyond  the  nation's 
boundaries  it  cannot  properly  pass.  Thus  it  is  the 
normal  condition  of  a  Branch  Church  to  be  a  Na- 
tional Church  ;  it  tends  to  nationality  as  its  perfect 
idea ;  till  it  is  national  it  is  defective,  and  when  it  is 
national  it  is  all  it  can  be,  or  was  meant  to  be. 
Since  then  to  understand  what  any  being  is,  we  must 
contemplate  it,  not  in  its  rudiments  or  commence- 
ments, any  more  than  in  its  decline,  but  in  its  ma- 
turity and  its  perfection,  it  follows  that,  if  we  would 
know  what  a  Branch  Church  is,  we  must  view  it  as 
a  National  Church,  and  we  shall  form  but  an  erro- 
neous estimate  of  its  nature  and  its  characteristics, 
unless  we  investigate  its  national  form. 

Recollect  then  that  a  Branch  Church  is  a  National 
Church,  and  the  reason  why  I  warn  you  against 
getting  your  orders  from  such  a  Church,  or  joining 
such  a  Church,  is  this :  that  a  National  Church  ever 
will  be  and  must  be  what  vou  have  found  the  Esta- 


175 

folishment  to  be, — an  Erastian  body.  You  are  going 
to  start  afresh.  Well,  then,  I  assert,  that  if  you  do 
not  get  beyond  the  idea  of  Nationalism  in  this  your 
new  beginning,  you  spring  from  Erastianism,  and  to 
Erastianism  you  tend.  That  heresy,  which  is  the 
fruitful  mother  of  all  heresies,  is  your  first  and  your 
last ;  the  source  of  your  orders  and  the  fruit  of  your 
aggrandizement;  that  heresy,  I  say,  which  is  the 
very  badge  of  Anglicanism,  and  the  very  detestation 
of  that  theological  movement  from  which  you  spring. 

I  assert,  then,  that  a  Branch  or  National  Church 
is  necessarily  Erastian,  and  cannot  be  otherwise,  till 
the  nature  of  man  is  other  than  it  is ;  and  I  shall 
show  this  from  the  state  of  the  case,  and  from  the 
course  of  history,  and  from  the  confession,  or  rather 
avowal,  of  its  defenders.  The  English  Establish- 
ment is  nothing  extraordinary  in  this  respect ;  the 
Russian  Church  is  Erastian,  so  is  the  Greek ;  such 
was  the  Nestorian ;  such  would  be  the  Scotch  Epis- 
copal or  the  Anglo-American,  if  ever  they  became 
commensurate  with  the  nation. 

You  hold,  and  rightly  hold,  that  the  Church  is  a 
sovereign  and  self-sustaining  power,  in  the  same 
sense  in  which  any  temporal  state  is  such.  She  is 
sufficient  for  herself;  she  is  absolutely  independent 
in  her  own  sphere ;  she  has  irresponsible  control 
over  her  subjects  in  religious  matters;  she  makes 
laws  for  them  of  her  own  authority,  and  enforces  obe- 
dience on  them  as  the  tenure  of  their  membership  in 


176 

her  communion.  And  you  know,  in  the  next  place, 
that  the  very  people,  who  are  her  subjects,  and  in 
another  relation  the  State's  subjects,  and  that  those 
very  matters  which  in  one  aspect  are  spiritual,  in 
another  are  secular.  The  very  same  persons  and 
the  very  same  things  belong  to  two  supreme  juris- 
dictions at  once,  so  that  the  Church  cannot  issue  any 
order  but  it  affects  the  persons  and  the  things  of  the 
State ;  nor  can  the  State  issue  any  order,  without  its 
affecting  the  persons  and  the  things  of  the  Church. 
Moreover,  though  there  is  a  general  coincidence  be- 
tween the  principles  on  which  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
welfare  respectively  depend,  as  proceeding  from  one 
and  the  same  God,  who  has  given  power  to  the 
Magistrate  as  well  as  to  the  Priest,  yet  there  is  no 
necessary  coincidence  in  their  particular  application 
and  resulting  details,  just  as  the  good  of  the  soul  is 
not  always  the  good  of  the  body ;  and  much  more  is 
this  the  case,  considering  there  is  no  divine  direction 
promised  to  the  State,  to  preserve  it  from  human 
passion  and  human  selfishness.  Under  these  circum- 
stances it  is  morally  impossible  that  there  should  not 
be  continual  collision,  or  chance  of  collision,  between 
the  State  and  the  Church;  and,  considering  the 
State  has  the  power  of  the  sword,  and  the  Church 
has  no  arms  but  such  as  are  spiritual,  the  problem  to 
be  considered  by  us  is,  how  the  Church  may  be  able 
to  do  her  divinely  appointed  work  without  molesta- 
tion or  seduction  from  the  State. 


177 

And  a  difficulty  surely  it  is,  and  a  difficulty  which 
Christianity  for  the  most  part  brought  into  the  world. 
It  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  existed  before ;  for, 
if  not  altogether  in  Judaism,  yet  certainly  in  the 
heathen  polities,  the  care  of  public  worship,  and 
morals,  and  education,  was  mainly  committed,  as 
well  as  secular  matters,  to  the  civil  magistrate. 
There  was  no  independent  jurisdiction  in  religion ; 
but,  when  our  Lord  came,  it  was  with  the  express 
object  of  introducing  a  new  kingdom,  distinct  and 
different  from  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  He 
was  sought  after  by  Herod,  and  condemned  by  Pi- 
late, on  the  very  apprehension  that  His  claims  to 
royalty  were  inconsistent  with  their  prerogatives. 
Such  was  the  Church  when  first  introduced  into  the 
world,  and  her  subsequent  history  has  been  after  the 
pattern  of  her  commencement ;  the  State  has  ever 
been  jealous  of  her,  and  persecuted  her  from  without, 
and  has  bribed  her  from  within. 

I  repeat,  the  great  principles  of  the  State  are 
those  of  the  Church,  and,  if  the  State  would  but 
keep  within  its  own  province,  it  would  find  the 
Church  its  truest  ally  and  best  benefactor.  She 
upholds  obedience  to  the  magistrate ;  she  recognizes 
his  office  as  from  God ;  she  is  the  preacher  of  peace, 
the  sanction  of  law,  the  first  element  of  order,  and 
the  safeguard  of  morality,  and  that  without  possible 
vacillation  or  failure ;  she  may  be  fully  trusted ;  she 
is  a  sure  friend,  for  she  is  indefectible  and  undying. 
8* 


178 

But  it  is  not  enough  for  the  State  that  things  should 
be  done,  unless  it  has  the  doing  of  them ;  it  abhors 
a  double  jurisdiction,  and  what  it  calls  a  divided 
allegiance  ;  aid  Cassar  aut  nullus,  is  its  motto,  nor 
does  it  willingly  accept  of  any  compromise.  All 
power  is  founded,  as  it  is  often  said,  on  public  opi- 
nion ;  to  allow  the  existence  of  a  collateral  and  rival 
authority,  is  to  weaken  its  own;  and  though  that 
authority  never  showed  its  presence  by  collision, 
but  ever  concurred  and  co-operated  in  the  acts  of 
the  State,  yet  the  divinity  with  which  the  State 
would  fain  hedge  itself,  would,  in  the  minds  of  men, 
be  concentrated  on  that  Ordinance  of  God  which  has 
the  higher  claim  to  it. 

Such  being  the  difficulty  which  ever  has  attended, 
and  ever  will  attend,  the  claims  and  the  position  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  this  proud  and  ambitious 
world,  let  us  see  how,  as  a  matter  of  history,  Pro- 
vidence has  practically  solved  or  alleviated  it.  He 
has  done  so  by  means  of  the  very  circumstance  that 
the  Church  is  Catholic,  that  she  is  one  organized 
body,  expanded  over  the  whole  earth,  and  in  active 
intercommunion  part  with  part,  so  that  no  one  part 
acts  without  acting  on  and  with  every  other.  A 
large  community  necessarily  moves  slowly ;  and  this 
will  particularly  be  the  case  when  it  is  subject  to 
distinct  temporal  rulers,  exposed  to  various  political 
interests  and  prepossessions,  and  embarrassed  by 
such  impediments  to  communication,   physical   or 


179 

moral,  mountains  and  seas,  languages  and  laws,  as 
national  distinctions  involve.  Added  to  this,  the 
Church  is  composed  of  a  vast  number  of  ranks  and 
offices,  so  that  there  is  scarcely  any  of  her  acts  that 
belongs  to  one  individual  will,  or  is  elaborated  by  one 
intellect,  or  that  is  not  rather  the  joint  result  of  many 
co-operating  agents,  each  in  his  own  place  and  at  his 
appointed  moment.  Moreover,  so  fertile  an  idea  as 
the  Christian  faith,  so  happy  a  mother  as  the  Catho- 
lic Church,  is  necessarily  developed  and  multiplied 
into  a  thousand  various  powers  and  functions ;  she 
has  her  Clergy  and  laity,  her  seculars  and  regulars, 
her  Episcopate  and  Prelacy,  her  diversified  orders, 
congregations,  confraternities,  communities,  each  in- 
deed intimately  one  with  the  whole,  yet  with  its  own 
characteristics,  its  own  work,  its  own  traditions,  its 
graceful  rivalry,  or  its  disgraceful  jealousies,  and 
sensitive,  on  its  own  ground  and  its  own  sphere,  of 
whatever  takes  place  any  where  else.  And  then 
again,  there  is  the  ever-varying  action  of  the  ten 
thousand  influences,  political,  national,  local,  muni- 
cipal, rural,  scholastic,  all  bearing  upon  her;  the 
clashing  of  temporal  interests,  the  apprehension  of 
danger  to  the  whole  or  its  parts,  the  necessity  of 
conciliation,  and  the  duty  of  temporizing.  Further 
she  has  no  material  weapons  of  attack  or  defence 
and  is  at  any  moment  susceptible  of  apparent  defeat 
from  local  suffering  or  personal  misadventure .  More- 
over, her  centre  is  one,  and,  from  this  very  eircum- 


18u 

stance,  sheltered  from  secular  inquisitiveness ;  shel- 
tered, moreover,  in  consequence  of  the  antiquated 
character  of  its  traditions,  the  peculiarity  of  its 
modes  of  acting,  the  tranquillity  and  deliberateness 
of  its  operations,  as  well  as  the  mysteriousness  thrown 
about  it  both  from  its  picturesque  and  imposing 
ceremonial,  and  the  popular  opinion  of  its  sanctity. 
And  further  still,  she  has  the  sacred  obligation  on 
her  of  long-suffering,  patience,  charity,  of  regard  for 
the  souls  of  her  children,  and  of  an  anxious  antici- 
pation of  the  consequences  of  her  measures.  Hence, 
though  her  course  is  consistent,  determinate,  and 
simple,  when  viewed  in  history,  yet  to  those  who 
accompany  the  stages  of  its  evolution  from  day  to 
day  as  they  occur,  it  is  confused  and  disappointing. 
How  different  is  the  bearing  of  the  temporal 
power!  Its  promptitude,  decisiveness,  keenness, 
and  force  are  well  represented  in  the  military  array 
which  is  its  instrument.  Punctual  in  its  movements 
precise  in  its  operations,  imposing  in  its  equipments, 
with  its  spirits  high,  and  its  step  firm,  with  its 
haughty  clarion  and  its  black  artillery,  behold,  the 
mighty  world  is  gone  forth  to  war,  with  what  ?  with 
an  unknown  something,  which  it  feels  but  cannot 
see;  which  flits  around  it,  which  flaps  against  its 
cheek,  with  the  air,  with  the  wind.  It  charges,  and 
it  slashes,  and  it  fires  its  volleys,  and  it  bayonets,  and 
it  is  mocked  by  a  foe  who  dwells  in  another  sphere, 
and  is  far  beyond  the  force  of  its  analysis  or  the 


181 

capacities  of  its  calculus.  The  air  gives  way,  and  it 
returns  again ;  it  exerts  a  gentle  but  constant  pres- 
sure on  every  side  ;  moreover,  it  is  of  vital  necessity 
to  the  very  power  which  is  attacking  it.  Whom 
have  you  gone  out  against  ?  a  few  old  men,  with  red 
hats  and  stockings,  or  a  hundred  pale  students,  with 
eyes  on  the  ground  and  heads  in  their  girdle ;  they 
are  as  stubble ;  destroy  them  ; — then  there  will  be 
other  old  men  and  other  pale  students  instead  of 
them.  But  we  will  direct  our  rage  against  one :  he 
flees ;  what  is  to  be  done  with  him  ?  Cast  him  out 
upon  the  wide  world?  But  nothing  can  go  on 
without  him.  Then  bring  him  back :  but  he  will 
give  us  no  guarantee  for  the  future.  Then  leave 
him  alone ;  his  power  is  gone,  he  is  at  an  end,  or  he 
will  take  a  new  course  of  himself;  he  will  take  part 
with  the  world.  Meanwhile,  the  multitude  of  influ- 
ences all  over  the  great  Catholic  body,  rise  up  all 
around,  and  hide  heaven  and  earth  from  the  eyes  of 
the  spectators  of  the  combat ;  and  unreal  judgments 
are  hazarded,  and  rash  predictions,  till  the  mist 
clears  away,  and  then  the  old  man  is  found  in  his 
own  place,  as  before,  saying  Mass  over  the  tomb  of 
the  Apostles.  Resentment  and  animosity  succeed 
in  the  minds  of  the  many,  when  they  find  their 
worldly  wisdom  quite  at  fault.  But,  in  truth,  it  is 
her  very  vastness,  her  manifold  constituents,  her 
complicated  structure,  which  give  the  Church  this 
semblance,  whenever  she  wears  it,   of  feebleness? 


182 

vacillation,  subtleness,  or  dissimulation.  She  ad- 
vances, retires,  goes  to  and  fro,  passes  to  the  right 
or  left,  bides  her  time,  by  a  spontaneous,  not  a  de- 
liberate, action.  It  is  the  divinely-intended  method 
of  her  coping  with  the  world's  power.  Even  in  the 
brute  creation,  each  animal  which  Grod  has  made 
has  its  own  instincts  for  securing  its  subsistence,  and 
guarding  against  its  foes ;  and  when  He  sent  out 
His  own  into  the  world,  as  sheep  among  wolves, 
over  and  above  the  gifts  of  harmlessness  and  wis- 
dom, He  lodged  the  security  of  His  truth  in  the 
very  fact  of  its  Catholicity.  The  Church  triumphs 
over  the  world's  jurisdiction  everywhere,  because, 
though  everywhere,  she  is,  for  that  very  reason,  in 
the  fulness  of  her  jurisdiction,  no  where.  Ten 
thousand  subordinate  authorities  have  been  planted 
round,  or  have  issued  from,  that  venerable  chair 
whei»e  sits  the  plenitude  of  Apostolical  power. 
Hence,  when  she  would  act,  the  blow  is  broken,  and 
concussion  avoided,  by  the  innumerable  springs,  if  I 
may  use  the  word,  on  which  the  celestial  machinery 
is  hung.  By  an  inevitable  law  of  the  system,  and 
by  the  nature  of  the  case,  there  are  inquiries,  and 
remonstrances,  and  threatenings,  and  first  decisions, 
and  appeals,  and  reversals,  and  conferences,  and  long 
delays,  and  arbitrations,  before  the  final  steps  are 
taken,  if  they  cannot  be  avoided,  and  before  the 
proper  authority  of  the  Church  shows  itself,  whether 
in  definition,  or  bull,  or  anathema,  or  interdict,  or 


183 

other  spiritual  instrument;  and  then  if,  after  all, 
persuasion  has  failed,  and  compromise  with  the  civil 
power  is  impossible,  the  world  is  prepared  for  the 
event;  and  even  in  that  case  the  Holy  See  is  spared 
any  direct  collision  with  it,  for  it  is  no  subject  in 
matters  temporal  of  the  State  with  which  it  is  at 
variance,  whatever  it  be,  being  temporal  Sovereign 
in  its  own  home,  and  treating  with  the  States  of  the 
earth  only  through  its  representatives  and  ministers. 
The  remarks  I  have  been  making  are  well  illus- 
trated by  the  history  of  our  own  great  St.  Thomas, 
in  his  contest  with  King  Henry  II.  Deserted  by 
his  suffragans,  and  threatened  with  assassination,  he 
is  forced  to  escape,  as  he  can,  to  the  Continent. 
He  puts  his  cause  before  the  Pope,  but  with  no  im- 
mediate result,  for  the  Pope  is  in  contest  with  the 
Emperor,  who  has  taken  part  with  a  pretender  to 
the  Apostolic  see.  For  two  years  nothing  is  done  ; 
then  the  Pope  begins  to  move,  but  mediates  between 
Archbishop  and  King,  instead  of  taking  the  part  of 
the  former.  The  King  of  France  comes  forward  on 
the  Saint's  side,  and  his  friends  attempt  to  gain  the 
Empress  Matilda  also.  Strengthened  by  these  de- 
monstrations, St.  Thomas  excommunicates  some  of 
the  King's  party,  and  threatens  the  King  himself, 
not  to  say  his  realm,  with  an  interdict.  Then  there 
are  appeals  to  Rome  on  the  part  of  the  King's 
Bishops,  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  such  extremities, 
while  the  Pope  gives  a  more  distinct  countenance  to 


184 

the  Saint's  cause.  Suddenly,  the  face  of  things  is 
overcast ;  the  Pope  has  anathematized  the  Emperor, 
and  has  his  hands  full  of  his  own  matters ;  Henry's 
agents  at  Rome  obtain  a  Legatine  Commission, 
under  the  Presidency  of  a  Cardinal  favorable  to  his 
cause. 

The  quarrel  lingers  on;  two  years  more  have 
passed,  and  then  the  Commission  fails.  Then  St. 
Thomas  rouses  himself  again,  and  is  proceeding 
with  the  interdict,  when  news  comes  that  the  King 
has  overreached  the  Pope,  and  the  Archbishop's 
powers  are  altogether  suspended  for  a  set  time. 
The  artifice  is  detected  by  the  good  offices  of  the 
French  Bishops,  the  Pope  sends  comminatory  letters 
to  the  King,  but  then  again  does  not  carry  them  out. 
There  is  a  reconciliation  between  the  Kings  of  Eng- 
land and  France,  at  the  expense  of  St.  Thomas ; 
but,  by  this  time,  the  suspension  is  over,  and  the 
Saint  excommunicates  the  Bishop  of  London.  In 
consequence,  he  receives  a  rebuke  from  the  Pope, 
who,  after  absolving  the  Bishop,  takes  the  matter 
into  his  own  hands,  himself  excommunicates  the 
Bishop,  and  himself  threatens  the  kingdom  with  an 
interdict.  Then  St.  Thomas  returns,  and  is  mar- 
tyred, winning  the  day  by  suffering,  not  by  striking. 

Seven  years  are  consumed  in  these  transactions 
from  first  to  last,  and  they  afford  a  sufficient  illus- 
tration of  the  subject  before  us.  If  I  add  the  re- 
marks made  on  them  by  the  editor  of  the  Saint's 


185 

letters,  in  Mr.  Froude's  "  Remains,5'  it  is  for  the 
sake  of  his  general  statement,  which  is  as  just  as  it 
is  apposite  to  my  purpose,  but  not  as  if  I  approved 
of  the  tone  and  drift  of  it.  Speaking  of  St.  Tho- 
mas, he  says,  "  His  notions,  both  as  regarded  the 
justice  and  the  policy  to  be  pursued  in  the  treatment 
of  Henry,  had  suggested  this  course  [the  interdict] 
to  him  from  the  first  opening  of  the  contest ;  and  he 
seems  always  to  have  had  such  a  measure  before 
him,  only  the  interruptions  occasioned  by  embassies 
from  Rome,  and  appeals  to  Rome,  and  other  tem- 
porary suspensions  of  his  ecclesiastical  powers,  had 
prevented  him  from  putting  his  purpose  into  effect ; 
these  having,  in  fact,  taken  up  almost  the  whole  of 
the  time.  For  an  embassy,  it  must  be  observed, 
from  the  first  day  of  its  appointment,  suspended  the 
Archbishop's  movements,  who  could  do  nothing 
while  special  and  higher  judges  were  in  office.  .  .  . 
In  this  way,  there  being  so  much  time,  both  before 
and  after  the  actual  holding  of  the  conferences, 
during  which  the  Archbishop's  hands  were  tied,  he 
may  be  said  to  have  been  almost  under  one  sentence 
of  suspension  from  the  first,  only  rendered  more 
harassing  and  vexatious  from  the  promise  afforded  by 
his  short  intervals  of  liberty,  and  the  alterations,  in 
consequence,  of  expectation  and  disappointment. 
It  was  a  state  of  confinement,  which  was  always 
approaching  its  termination,  and  never  realizing  it. 
With  a  clear  line  of  action  before  him  from  the  first, 


186 

and  with  resolution  and  ability  to  carry  it  out,  the 
Archbishop  was  compelled  to  keep  pace,  step  by 
step,  with  a  court  that  was  absolutely  deficient  in 
both  these  respects;  and  found  himself  reduced 
throughout  to  a  situation  of  simple  passiveness  and 
endurance."*  Of  course; — a  Branch  Church,  with 
the  Catholic  dogma  and  with  Saints  in  it,  cannot 
be ;  but,  supposing  the  English  Church  had  been 
such  at  the  time  of  that  contest,  it  would,  humanly 
speaking,  have  inevitably  been  shattered  to  pieces, 
or  else  its  Saints  got  rid  of,  its  Erastianizing  Bishops 
made  its  masters,  and  ultimately  its  dogma  corrupted, 
and  the  times  of  Henry  VIII.  anticipated; — this 
would  have  been,  but  for  its  intercommunion  with 
the  rest  of  Christendom  and  the  supremacy  of  Borne. 
This,  however,  is  what  has  been  going  on,  in  one 
way  or  another,  for  the  whole  eighteen  centuries  of 
Christian  history.  For  even  in  the  ante-Nicene 
period,  the  heretic  patriarch  of  Antioch  was  pro- 
tected by  the  local  sovereignty  against  the  Catholics, 
and  was  dispossessed  by  the  authority  and  influence 
of  Bome.  And  since  that  time,  again  and  again 
would  the  civil  power,  humanly  speaking,  have  taken 
captive  and  corrupted  each  portion  of  Christendom 
in  turn,  but  for  its  union  with  the  rest,  and  the  noble 
championship  of  the  Holy  See.  Our  ears  ring  with 
the  oft- told  tale,  how  the  temporal  sovereign  perse- 


*  Froude's  Remains,  vol.  iv.  p.  449. 


187 

cuted,  or  attempted,  or  gained  the  local  Episcopate, 
and  how  the  many  or  the  few  faithful  fell  back  on 
Rome.  So  was  it  with  the  Arians  in  the  East,  and 
St.  Athanasius;  so  with  the  Byzantine  Empress 
and  St.  Chrysostom ;  so  with  the  Vandal  Hunneric 
and  the  Africans;  so  with  the  130  Monophysite 
Bishops  at  Ephesus  and  St.  Flavian ;  so  was  it  in 
the  instance  of  the  500  Bishops,  who,  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Basilicus,  signed  a  declaration  against  the 
tome  of  St.  Leo  ;  so  in  the  instance  of  the  Henoticon 
of  Zeno ;  and  in  the  controversies  both  of  the  Mo- 
nothelites  and  of  the  Iconoclasts.  Nay,  in  some  of 
those  few  instances  which  are  brought  in  controversy, 
as  derogatory  to  the  constancy  of  the  Roman  See, 
the  vacillation,  whatever  it  was,  was  owing  to  what, 
as  I  have  shown,  is  ordinarily  avoided, — the  imme- 
diate and  direct  pressure  of  the  temporal  power. 
As,  among  a  hundred  Martyr  and  Confessor  Popes, 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Marcellinus,  for  an  hour  or  a  day 
denied  their  Lord,  so,  if  Liberius  and  Vigilius  gave 
a  momentary  scandal  to  the  cause  of  orthodoxy,  it 
was  when  they  were  no  longer  in  their  proper  place, 
as  the  keystone  of  a  great  system,  and  as  the  cor- 
relative of  a  thousand  ministering  authorities,  but 
mere  individuals,  torn  from  their  see,  and  prostrated 
before  Caesar. 

In  later  and  modern  times  we  see  the  same  truth 
irresistibly  brought  out ;  not  only,  for  instance,  in 
St.  Thomas's  history,  but  in  St.  Anselm's,  nay,  in 


188 

the  whole  course  of  English  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
from  the  Conquest  to  the  sixteenth  century,  and,  not 
with  least  significancy,  in  the  primacy  of  Cranmer. 
Moreover,  we  see  it  in  the  tendency  of  the  Galli- 
canism  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  the  Josephism  of  Aus- 
tria. Such,  too,  is  the  lesson  taught  us  in  the  recent 
policy  of  the  Czar  towards  the  United  Greeks,  and 
in  the  present  bearing  of  the  English  Government 
towards  the  Church  of  Ireland.  In  all  these  in- 
stances, it  is  a  struggle  between  the  Holy  See  and 
some  local,  perhaps  distant,  Government,  the  liberty 
and  orthodoxy  of  its  faithful  people  being  the  matter 
in  dispute ;  and  while  the  temporal  power  is  on  the 
spot,  and  eager,  and  cogent,  and  persuasive,  and 
dangerous,  the  strength  of  the  assailed  party  lies  in 
its  fidelity  to  the  rest  of  Christendom  and  to  the 
Holy  See. 

"Well,  this  is  intelligible ;  we  see  why  it  should  be 
so,  and  we  see  it  in  historical  fact ;  but  how  is  it 
possible,  and  where  are  the  instances  in  proof,  that 
a  Church  can  cast  off  Catholic  intercommunion 
without  falling  under  the  power  of  the  State  ?  Could 
an  isolated  Church  do  now,  what,  humanly  speaking, 
it  could  not  have  done  in  the  twelfth  century, 
though  a  Saint  was  its  champion  ?  Do  you  hope  to 
do,  my  brethren,  what  was  beyond  St.  Thomas  of 
Canterbury?  Truly  is  it  then  called  a  Branch 
Church ;  for,  as  a  branch  cannot  live  of  itself,  in 
consequence,  when  lopped  off  the  Body  of  Christ,  it 


!89 

is  straightway  grafted  upon  the  civil  constitution,  if 
it  is  to  preserve  life  of  any  kind.  Indeed,  who 
could  ever  entertain  such  a  dream,  as  that  a  circum- 
scribed religious  society,  without  the  awfulness  of  a 
divine  origin,  the  sacredness  of  immemorial  custom, 
or  the  prestige  of  many  previous  successes,  while 
standing  on  its  own  ground,  and  simply  subject  in 
its  constituent  members  to  the  civil  power,  should  be 
able  to  assert  ecclesiastical  claims,  which  are  to  im- 
pede the  free  action  of  that  same  sovereign  power, 
and  to  insult  its  majesty? — a  native  hierarchy, 
growing  out  of  its  very  soil,  challenging  it,  standing 
breast  to  breast  against  it,  breathing  defiance  into  its 
very  face,  striking  at  it  full  and  straight, — why,  as 
men  are  constituted,  such  a  nuisance,  as  they  would 
call  it,  would  be  intolerable.  The  rigid,  unelastic, 
wooden  contrivance  would  be  shivered  into  bits  by 
the  very  recoil  and  jar  of  the  first  blow  it  was  rash 
enough  to  venture.  But  matters  would  not  go  so 
far;  the  blandishments,  the  alliances,  the  bribes, 
the  strong  arm  of  the  world,  would  bring  it  to  its 
senses,  and  humble  it  in  its  own  sight,  ere  it  had 
opportunity  to  be  so  valiant.  The  world  would  sim- 
ply overmaster  the  presumptuous  claimant  to  divine 
authority,  and  would  use  for  its  own  purposes  the 
slave  whom  it  had  dishonored.  It  would  set  her  to 
sweep  its  courts,  or  keep  the  line  of  its  triumphant 
march,  who  had  thought  to  reign  among  the  stars  of 
heaven. 


190 

For,  it  is  evident,  a  National  Church  can  be  of  the 
highest  service  to  the  State,  if  properly  under  con- 
trol. The  State  wishes  to  make  its  subjects  peaceful 
and  obedient ;  and  there  is  nothing  more  fitted  to 
effect  this  object  than  religion.  It  wishes  them  to 
have  some  teaching  about  the  next  world,  but  not 
too  much .;  just  as  much  as  is  important  and  bene- 
ficial to  the  interests  of  the  present.  Decency, 
order,  industry,  patience,  sobriety*  and  as  much  of 
purity  as  can  be  expected  from  human  nature, — 
this  is  its  list  of  requisites ;  not  dogma,  for  it  creates 
the  odium  theologicum ;  not  mystery,  for  it  only 
serves  to  exalt  the  priesthood.  Useful,  sensible 
preaching,  activity  in  benevolent  schemes,  the  care 
of  schools,  the  superintendence  of  charities,  good 
advice  for  the  thoughtless  and  idle,  and  spiritual 
consolation  for  the  dying, — these  are  the  duties  of  a 
National  or  Branch  Church.  The  parochial  clergy 
are  to  be  a  moral  police ;  as  to  the  Bishops,  they 
are  to  be  officers  of  a  State-religion,  not  shepherds 
of  a  people ;  not  mixing  in  the  crowd,  but  coming 
forward  on  solemn  occasions  to  crown,  or  to  marry 
or  baptize  royalty,  or  to  read  prayers  to  the  nobles 
of  the  realm,  or  to  consecrate  churches,  or  to  ordain 
and  confirm,  or  to  preach  for  charities,  and  but  little 
seen  in  public  in  any  other  way.  Synods  are  un- 
necessary and  dangerous,  for  they  convey  the  im- 
pression that  the  Establishment  is  a  distinct  body, 


191 

and  has  rights  of  its  own.  So  is  discipline,  or  any 
practical  separation  of  Churchmen  and  Dissenters ; 
for  nationality  is  the  real  bond,  and  Churchmanship 
but  the  accident  of  an  Englishman.  Churches  and 
churchyards  are  national  property,  and  open  to  all, 
whatever  their  denomination,  for  marriage  and  for 
burial,  when  they  will.  Nor  must  the  Establishment 
be  in  the  eye  of  the  law  a  corporation,  even  though 
its  separate  incumbents  and  chapters  be  such,  lest 
it  be  looked  upon  as  politically  more  than  a  name, 
or  a  function  of  State. 

Now,  in  order  to  show  that  this  is  no  exaggera- 
tion, I  will,  in  conclusion,  refer  in  evidence  to  the 
celebrated  work  of  a  celebrated  man,  in  defence  of 
the  Establishment;,  a  work,  too,  which  disowns 
Erastianism,  and,  in  a  certain  sense,  is  written  against 
it,  and  which,  moreover,  is  in  point  of  doctrine,  be- 
hind what  would  be  maintained  or  taken  for  granted 
now.  For  all  these  reasons,  I  could  not  take^a  work, 
in  illustration  of  what  I  have  said,  fairer  to  the 
National  Church,  than  "  The  Alliance  of  Church  and 
State,"  of  Bishop  Warburton.  A  few  extracts  will 
be  sufficient  for  my  purpose. 

In  this  treatise  he  tells  us,  that  the  object  of  the 
State  is,  not  the  propagation  of  the  truth,  but  the 
well-being  of  society.  "The  true  end,"  he  says, 
"  for  which  religion  is  established"  by  the  State, 
"  is  not  to  provide  for  the  true  faith,  but  for  civil 


192 

utility."*  This  is  "the  key,"  he  observes,  "to 
open  the  whole  mystery  of  this  controversy,  and  to 
lead"  a  man  "  safe  through  all  the  intricacies,  wind- 
ings, and  perplexities  in  which  it  has  been  involved." 
Next,  religion  is  to  be  used  in  order  to  benefit  that 
which,  it  seems,  does  not  in  any  true  sense  provide 
for  religion.  "  This  use  of  religion  to  the  State," 
he  says,  "  was  seen  by  the  learned,  and  felt  by  all 
men  of  every  age  and  nation.  The  ancient  world 
particularly  was  so  firmly  convinced  of  this  truth, 
that  the  greatest  secret  of  the  sublime  art  of  legis- 
lation consisted  in  this — how  best  religion  might  be 
applied  to  serve  society."f 

Well,  so  far  we  might  tolerate  him ;  such  state- 
ments, if  not  true,  are  not  absolutely  unheard  of  or 
paradoxical ;  but  next  he  makes  a  startling  step  in 
advance.  "  Public  utility  and  truth  coincide, "J  he 
says;  nay,  further  still,  he  distinctly  calls  public 
utility,  "  a  sure  rule  and  measure  of  truth  ;"§  so 
that,  he  continues,  by  means  of  it,  the  State  "  will 
be  much  better  enabled  to  find  out  truth  than  any 
speculative  inquirer,  with  all  the  aid  of  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  schools."!!     "From  whence  it  appears," 


*  Bp.  Warburton's  "  Alliance  of  Church  and  State,"  p.  14  8, 
ed. 1741. 

t  Ibid,  p.  18. 
t  Ibid,  p.  147. 

*  Ibid,  p.  135. 
II  Ibid. 


193 

he  continues,  •'  that  while  a  State,  in  union  with  the 
Church,  hath  so  great  an  interest  and  concern  wi  h 
true  religion,  and  so  great  a  capacity  for  discovering 
what  is  true,  religion  is  likely  t#  thrive  much  better 
than  when  left  to  itself."  The  State  then,  it  would 
appear,  cut  of  compassion  to  religion,  takes  it  out 
of  the  schools,  and  adapts  it  to  its  own  purposes  to 
keep  it  pure  and  make  it  perfect. 

He  does  not  scruple  to  bring  out  this  very  senti- 
ment in  the  most  explicit  statement,  that  there  may 
be  no  mistake  about  his  meaning.  He  considers 
conformity  to  objects  of  State  the  simple  test  of 
truth,  purity,  exaggeration,  excess,  perversity,  or 
dangerousness  in  doctrinal  teaching.  "  Of  what- 
ever use,"  he  says,  "  an  alliance  may  be  thought 
for  preserving  the  being  of  religion,  the  necessity  of 

it  for  preserving  its  purity  is  most  evident 

Let  us  consider  the  danger  religion  runs,  when  left 
in  its  natural  state  to  itself,  of  deviating  from  truth. 
In  those  circumstances,  the  men  who  have  the 
greatest  credit  in  the  Church  are  such  as  are  famed 
for  greatest  sanctity.  Now  Church  sanctity  has 
been  generally  understood  to  be  then  most  perfect, 
when  most  estranged  from  the  world  and  all  its 
habitudes  and  relations.  But  this  being  only  to  be 
acquired  by  secession  and  retirement  from  human 
affairs,  and  that  secession  rendering  man  ignorant 
of  civil  society  and  its  rights  and  interests,  in  place 
of  which  will  succeed,  according  to  his  natural  tern- 

9 


194 

per,  all  the  follies  of  superstition  or  fanaticism,  we 
must  needs  conclude,  that  religion,  under  such 
directors  and  reformers,  (and  God  knows  these  are 
generally  its  lot,)  vigil  deviate  from  truth,  and  con- 
sequently  from  a  capacity,  in  proportion,  of  serving 
civil  society.  .  .  .  Such  societies  we  have  seen, 
whose  religious  doctrines  are  so  little  serviceable  to 
civil  society,  that  they  can  prosper  only  on  the  ruin 
and  destruction  of  it.  Such  are  those  who  preach 
up  the  sanctity  of  celibacy,  ascetism,  the  sinfulness 
of  defensive  war,  of  capital  punishments,  and  even 
of  civil  magistracy  itself.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
religion  is  in  alliance  with  the  State,  as  it  then  comes 
under  the  magistrate's  direction,  (those  holy  leaders 
having  now  neither  credit  nor  power  to  do  mischief,) 
its  purity  must  needs  be  reasonably  well  supported 
and  preserved.  For,  truth  and  public  utility  coinci- 
ding, the  civil  magistrate,  as  such,  will  see  it  for  his 
interest  to  seek  after  and  promote  the  truth  in  reli- 
gion ;  and,  by  means  of  public  utility,  which  his 
office  enables  him  so  well  to  understand,  he  will 
never  be  at  a  loss  to  know  where  such  truth  is  to  be 
found.''* 

He  takes  delight  in  this  view  of  the  subject,  and 
enforces  it  as  follows  : — "  The  means  of  attaining 
man's  happiness  here,"  he  says,  "  is  civil  society  ; 
the  means  of  his  happiness  hereafter  is  contempla- 


*  Ibid,  p,  58, 


195 

tion.  If  then  opinions,  the  result  of  contemplation, 
Obstruct  the  effects  of  civil  society,  it  follows  that 
tbey  must  be  restrained.  Accordingly,  the  ancient 
misters  of  wisdom,  who,  from  these  considerations, 
taught  that  man  was  born  for  action,  not  for  con- 
templation, universally  concurred  to  establish  it  as  a 
maxim,  founded  on  the  nature  of  things,  tbat  opin- 
ions should  always  give  way  to  civil  peace."*  And 
he  proceeds  to  defend  it  as  follows:  "  God  so  dis- 
posed things,  that  the  means  of  attaining  the  hap- 
piness of  one  state  [of  existence]  should  not  cross 
or  obstruct  the  means  of  attaining  the  happiness  of 
the  other.  From  whence  we  must  conclude,  that 
where  the  supposed  means  of  each,  viz.,  opinions 
and  civil  peace,  do  clash,  there  one  of  them  is  not 
the  true  means  of  happiness.  But  the  means  of 
attaining  the  happiness  peculiar  to  that  state  in 
which  the  man  at  present  exists,  being  perfectly  and 
infallibly  Jcnoivn  by  man,  and  the  means  of  the  hap- 
piness of  his  future  existence,  as  far  as  relates  to  the 
discovery  of  truth,  but  very  imperfectly  known  by 
him,  it  necessarily  follows  that,  wherever  opinions 
clash  with  civil  peace,  those  opinions  are  no  means 
of  future  happiness,  or,  in  other  words,  are  either  no 
truths,  or  truths  of  no  importance."  Behold  the 
principle  of  the  reasonings  of  the  Committee  of 
Privy  Council,  and  the  philosophy  of  the  Premier's 


Ibid,  p,  126, 


196 

satisfaction  thereupon !  Baptismal  regeneration  is 
made  true  or  not  true,  not  by  the  text  of  Scripture, 
the  testimony  of  the  Fathers,  the  tradition  of  the 
Church,  nay,  not  by  Prayer  Book,  Articles,  Jewell, 
Usher,  Carleton,  or  Bullinger,  but  by  its  tendency 
to  minister  to  the  peace  and  repose  of  the  commu- 
nity, to  the  convenience  and  comfort  of  Downing 
Street,  Lambeth,  and  Exeter  Hall. 

If  the  Bishop  makes  doctrine  depend  upon  po- 
litical expedience,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  he  should 
take  the  same  measure  of  the  Sacraments  and  orders 
of  his  Church.  "  Hence,"  he  says,  "  may  be  seen 
the  folly  of  those  Christian  sects,  which,  under  pre- 
tence that  Christianity  is  a  spiritual  religion,  finey 
it  cannot  have  rites,  ceremonies,  public  worship,  a 
ministry  or  ecclesiastical  policy.  Not  reflecting  that 
without  these  it  could  never  have  become  national, 
and  consequently  could  not  have  done  that  service 
to  the  State  that  it,  of  all  religions,  is  most  capable 
of  performing."*  And  then  in  a  note,  on  occasion 
of  Burnet's  statement,  that  "  Sidney's  notion  of 
Christianity  was,  that  it  was  like  a  divine  philosophy 
in  the  mind,  without  public  worship  or  anything  that 
looked  like  a  Church,"  he  adds,  "  that  an  ignorant 
monk,  who  had  seen  no  further  than  his  cell,  or  a  mad 
fanatic,  who  had  thrown  aside  his  reason,  should 
talk  thus  is  nothing;  but  that  the  great  Sidney,  a 


Ibid,  p.  104. 


197 

man  so  superlatively  skilled  in  the  science  of  human 
nature  and  civil  policy,  and  who  so  well  knew  what 
religion  teas  capable  of  doing  for  the  State,  should 
fall  into  this  extravagant  error,  is  indeed  very  sur- 
prising." 

Accordingly  he  mentions  some  of  the  details  in 
which  ecclesiastical  ceremonies  are  serviceable  to  the 
State ;  and  in  quoting  his  list  and  reasons  of  them  I 
shall  conclude  my  extracts  from  his  very  instructive 
volume.  "  There  are  peculiar  junctures,"  he  says, 
"  when  the  influence  of  religion  is  more  than  ordinary 
serviceable  to  the  State,  and  these  the  civil  magis- 
trate only  knows.  Now,  while  a  Church  is  in  its 
natural  state  of  independency,  it  is  not  in  his  power 
to  improve  these  conjunctures  to  the  advantage  of 
the  State  by  a  proper  application  of  religion ;  but 
when  the  alliance  is  made,  and  consequently  the 
Church  under  his  direction,  he  has  the  authority  to 
prescribe  such  public  exercises  of  religion,  as  days 
of  humiliation,  fasts,  festivals,  exhortations  and  de- 
hortations,  thanksgivings  and  deprecations,  and  in 
such  a  manner  as  he  finds  the  exigencies  of  State 
require."* 

And  now  I  think  I  have  shown  you,  my  brethren, 
as  far  as  I  could  hope  to  do  so  in  the  course  of  a 
Lecture,  that  if  your  first  principle  be,  as  it  was  the 
first  principle  of  the  movement  of  1833,  that  the 


Ibid,  p.  63. 


198 

Church  should  have  absolute  power  over  her  faith, 
worship,  and  teaching,  you  must  not  be  contempla- 
ting an  ecclesiastical  body,  local  and  isolated  like  the 
Jewish,  or  what  you  have  been  accustomed  to  call  a 
Branch  Church.  The  fable  of  the  bundle  of  sticks 
especially  applies  to  those  who  have  no  weapons  of 
flesh  and  blood,  to  an  unarmed  hierarchy,  who  have 
to  contend  with  the  pride  of  intellect  and  the  power 
of  the  sword.  Look  abroad,  my  brethren,  and  see 
whether  this  union  of  many  members,  divided  in 
place  and  circumstances,  but  one  in  heart,  is  not 
most  visibly  the  very  strength  of  the  Catholic 
Church  at  this  very  time.  Then  only  can  you  resist 
the  world,  if  you  belong  to  a  communion  which  ex- 
ists under  many  governments,  not  one ;  or,  should  it 
ever  be  under  some  empire  commensurate  with  itself, 
which  is  not  conceivable,  has  at  length  an  immovable 
centre  to  fall  back  upon.  But  if  this  be  so,  if  you 
must  leave  the  existing  Establishment,  yet  not  seek 
or  form  a  Branch  Church  instead  of  it ;  I  have 
brought  you  by  a  short,  but  I  hope  not  an  abrupt  or 
unsafe  path,  to  the  conclusion  that  you  must  cease 
to  be  an  Anglican  by  becoming  a  Catholic.  Indeed, 
if  the  movement,  of  which  you  are  the  children,  had 
any  providential  scope  at  all,  I  do  not  see  how  you 
can  disguise  from  yourselves  that  Catholicism  is  it. 
The  Catholic  Church,  and  she  alone,  is  proof  against 
Erastianism. 


LECTUKE  VIL 


THE    PROVIDENTIAL    DIRECTION    OF   THE  MOVEMENT  Of 
1833    NOT   TOWARDS   A    SECT. 

It  was  my  object  yesterday  to  show  that  such 
persons  as  were  led  by  the  principles  of  the  move- 
ment of  1833  to  quit  the  Establishment,  necessarily 
proceeded,  as  by  one  and  the  same  act,  to  join  the 
Catholic  Church ;  that  the  case  was  not  supposable 
in  reason,  of  their  quitting  the  one  without  their 
joining  the  other ;  that  certain  projects,  which  have 
been  thrown  cut,  of  getting  orders  from  Greece  or 
America,  or  of  migrating  to  Scotland,  were  simply 
unmeaning  and  inconsistent,  if  Erastianism  was  the 
evil  to  be  shunned ;  for  no  communion  was  secure 
against  Erastianism,  but  the  Church  founded  on 
Peter,  I  argued  out  this  point  at  some  length ; 
yet,  in  doing  so,  I  felt  I  was  combatiDg  what  the 
common  sense  of  men  condemned  without  argument. 
I  really  do  not  believe  that  any  one  contemplates,  in 
fact,  such  a  plan  as  the  erection  of  a  Free  Church, 


200 

as  it  may  be  called,  in  England ;  and,  even  if  there 
were  individuals  who  contemplated  leaving  their 
native  country  for  Scotland  or  America,  they  never 
could  mean  that  this  is  the  providential  course  of  the 
movement  of  1833  ;  for  the  expatriation  of  a  large 
number  of  persons  of  both  sexes,  and  of  all  ages, 
voluntarily,  not  by  persecution,  yet  for  conscience- 
sake,  is  as  irrational  as  it  would  be  impracticable. 
If,  then,  I  have  dwelt  on  the  notion,  and  if  I  am 
going  still  to  dwell  on  it,  of  a  termination  of  the 
movement,  external  to  the  National  Communion,  yet 
not  so  far  as  the  Catholic  Church,  it  is  not  so  much 
for  its  own  sake,  as  because  I  hope  thereby  to  realize 
and  bring  home  to  you,  my  brethren,  the  state  of  the 
case,  and  your  position ;  and  because  it  enables  me 
to  suggest  principles  and  views  which  may  facilitate 
to  you,  that  resolution  of  your  perplexities  which,  I 
am  sure,  is  the  only  consistent  one.  This  must  be 
my  apology,  as  it  has  been  already,  if  any  one 
thinks,  that  to  continue  the  subject  is  actum  agere, 
I  am  now,  then,  going  to  set  before  you  a  second 
view  of  the  subject,  which  will  bring  us  to  the  same 
conclusion  as  the  argument  of  yesterday.  What  is 
meant  by  a  "  Church,"  is  a  religious  body  which 
has  jurisdiction  over  its  members,  or  which  governs 
itself;  whereas,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  Erastus, 
it  has  no  such  jurisdiction,  really  is  not  a  body,  but 
is  simply  governed  by  the  State,  and  is  a  department 
of  its  operations.     Now,  what   I  wish  to  show  is, 


tiiat  if  you  will  not  accept  of  the  Catholic  ChurcL 
and  submit  yourselves  to  her  authority,  your  only 
consistent  course  is  to  become  Erastians  at  once  ; 
that  is,  to  give  up  the  principles  on  which  you  set 
out. 

I  would  have  you  recollect,  then,  that  the  civil 
power  is  a  divine  ordinance  ;  no  one  doubts  it.     It 
is  prior  to   ecclesiastical  power.     The  Jewish  law- 
givers,  judges,  prophets,  kings,   had   some  sort  of 
jurisdiction  over  the  priesthood,  though  the  priest- 
hood  had  its  distinct  powers  and  duties.     The  Jewish 
Church  was  no  body  distinct  from  the  State      In  a 
Bertain  sense  the   civil  magistrate  is  what  divines 
calL  sg  iri  possession  ;"  the  cans  proband}'  lies  with 
those  who  would  encroach  upon  his  power,     He  was 
in  possession  in  the  age  when  Christ  came ;  he  is  in 
sslott  now  in  the  minds  of  men,    and  in  the" 
■!d  facie  view  of  human  society.     He  is  in  pos° 
ise  the  benefits  he  confers  on  mankind 
ibid)   and  obvious  to  the   world   at  large. 
Afid  he  is  UedOgnked  and  sanctioned  in  Scripture  in 
viij.  way )  nay  the  very  instrument  of 
hk  p1:v.- ;    }r:-  Which  he  is  strong,  the  carnal  weapon 
•itied  to  him.     "Let  every 
•.bjecl  to  higher  powers  | 
2v  bttt  from  God  |  and  tkose  that 
u  or,-  ordained  of  God. 
Ti'-  fj  resisteth  the 

Oi'diiiAiMte  of  Clod  \  arid  they  that  resist;  purchase  td 


202 

themselves  damnation.  For  princes  are  not  a  terror 
to  the  good  work,  but  to  the  eviL  Wilt  thou?  then, 
hot  be  afraid  of  the  power  ?  Bo  that  which  is  good5 
and  thou  Shalt  have  praise  from  the  same.  For  he 
is  God's  minister  to  thee  for  good.  But  if  thou  do 
that  which  is  evil,  fear;  for  he  beareth  not  the 
sword  in  vain.  For  he  is  God's  minister,  an  avenger 
to  execute  wrath  upon  him  that  doth  evil."  It  is 
difficult  to  find  a  passage  in  Scripture  more  solemn 
and  distinct  than  this,— distinct  in  the  duty  laid 
down,  and  the  sin  of  transgressing  it,  and  solemn  in 
the  reasons  on  which  the  duty  is  enforced.  The 
civil  magistrate  is  &  minister,  or,  in  a  certain  sense, 
a  priest  of  the  Most  High  ;  for,  as  is  Weil  known, 
the  word  in  the  original  Greek  is  one  Which  commonly 
is  appropriated  to  denote  the  sacerdotal  oihce  and 
function.  He  is,  moreover,  "  an  avenger  to  execute 
Wrath;55  lie  is  the  representative  and  image  on  earth 
of  that  awful  attribute  of  God,  His  justice,  as  fathers 
are  types  and  intimations  of  His  tenderness  and 
providence  towards  His  creatures.  Nor  is  this  ft 
Solitary  recognition  of  the  divine  origin  and  the 
tity  of  the  civil  power  s— when  Wisdom,  in  the 
book  of  Proverbs,  would  enlarge  upon  her  gi 
works  on  the  earth,  she  finds  one  principal  and 
Special  instance  of  them  to  consist  in  her  presi 
&ud  operation  in  the  rulers  of  the  people.    u  By 

lays,  l£kingo4  reign,  ynd.  lawgivi  ■ 
just  things  i  by  me  princes  rule,  and  the  mighty 


203 

decree  justice, "  And  let  it  be  observed,  that  the 
function  here  ascribed  to  the  civil  magistrate,  and 
requiring  a  peculiar  gift,  is  one  of  those  which  es* 
pecially  enters  into  the  idea  of  the  times  of  the 
promised  Messias.  "  Behold,5-*  says  the  Prophet, 
u  a  king  shall  reign  in  justice,  and  princes  shall  rule 
in  judgment.5'  "  He  shall  judge  the  poor  with 
justice,  and  shall  reprove  with  equity  for  the  meek 
of  the  earth  |  and  he  shall  strike  the  earth  with  the 
rod  of  his  mouth,  and  with  the  breath  of  his  lips  he 
shall  slay  the  wicked,  And  justice  shall  be  the 
girdle  of  his  loins,  and  faith  the  girdle  of  his  reins. *' 
Such  is  the  civil  power,  the  representative ,  and 
oracle,  and  instrument,  of  the  eternal  law  of  G-odj 
With  the  power  of  life  and  death}  the  awM  power 
of  continuing  or  cutting  short  the  probation  of  beings 
destined  to  live  eternally,  To  it  are  committed  all 
thing?  under  heaven $  it  is  the  sovereign  lord  of  the 
wide  ^arth  and  its  various  fruits,  and  of  men  who 
till  it  or  traverse  it  j  and  it  allots,  and  distributes, 
and  maintains,  the  one  for  the  benefit  of  the  other, 
And  m  it  in  saered  in  its  origin,  m  may  it  be  con* 
sidered  Irresponsible  in  its  acts,  and  treason  againfct 
|t|k  some  sort,  rebellion  against  the  Most  High* 

ihr  office  of  the  temporal  pow^p, 
&&d  eonsidering  the  manifold  temporal  hte 
which  it  L§  the  souree  and  ehannel,  the  eruelty  of 
dbtorfcing  the  settled  order  of  soeiety,  and  the  ma4» 
nets  sf  the  attempt,  surely  a  man  has  to  thia'k 


204 

twice,  and  ought  to  be  quite  sure  what  he  is  doing } 
and  to  have  a  clear  case  to  produce  in  his  behalf, 
before  he  sets  up  any  rival  society  to  embarrass  and 
endanger  it.  Pause  before  you  decide  on  such  a 
step,  and  make  sure  of  your  ground.  Surely  it  is 
not  likely  that  Grod  should  undo  His  own  work  for 
nothing.  He  does  not  revoke  His  ordinances  except 
they  have  failed  of  their  mission.  He  does  not 
supersede  them  or  innovate  on  them,  except  when 
He  is  about  to  commence  a  higher  work  than  He 
has  committed  to  them.  Judaism  was  supplanted 
by  Christianity,  because  its  law  was  unprofitable,  and 
because  the  G-ospel  was  a  definite  revelation  and 
doctrine  from  above,  which  required  a  more  perfect 
organ  for  its  promulgation,  A  new  institution  was 
formed,  and  to  it  was  transferred  a  portion  of  that 
authority  which  hitherto  had  centered  in  the  State, 
and  independedce  was  bestowed  on  it,  but  surely 
because  it  was  able  to  do  something  which  ancient 
philosophy  and  statesmanship  had  not  dreamed  of. 
Had  not  the  duties  of  the  Church  been  different,  or 
had  they  been  but  partially  different,  from  the  duties 
of  the  State,  it  is  obvious  to  ask,  for  what  con- 
ceivable reason  should  two  societies  be  set  up  to  do 
the  work  of  one  ?  Is  it  likely  that  Almighty  Wis- 
dom would  have  set  up  a  second  without  recalling 
the  first?  would  have  continued  the  commission  to 
the  first,  yet  sent  forth  a  second  upon  the  same 
field?      Such   a   course   would   have   been   simply 


206 

adapted  to  kindle  perpetual  strife,  and,  to  judge  by 
appearances,  to  defeat  the  very  purposes  for  which 
the  civil  power  was  appointed,  and  therefore  is,  in 
the  highest  degree  improbable,  prior  to  some  very 
clear  proof  to  the  contrary.  This  surely  approves 
itself  to  the  common  sense  of  mankind.  Either  no 
Church  has  been  set  up  in  the  world,  or  it  is  not  set 
up  for  nothing  5  it  must  have  a  mission  and  a  mes- 
3age  of  its  own.  Everything  is  denned,  or  made 
•specific  by  its  object ;  if  the  duties  of  the  Churchy 
its  functions,  its  teaching,  its  working,  be  not  spes 
cially  distinct  from  those  of  the  State,  why,  it  will 
be  impossible  to  resist  the  conclusion,  that  it  wag 
meant  to  amalgamate  with  the  State,  to  join  on  to  itj 
to  be  a  part  of  it,  to  be  subordinate  to  it*  We  do 
not  form  two  guilds  for  the  same  trades  .Either1 
assign  to  the  Church  its  own  craft,  or  do  not  ask 
that  it  should  be  chartered*  Its  object  Is  its  claim; 
This  consideration  is  a  sufficient  exposure  of  the 
theory  of  alliance  between  Church  and  State }  of 
which  1  was  led  to  Speak  yesterday,  "Warburtoii 
maintains  that  each  poWerj  the  Church  and  the 
8tatej  does  substantially  just  one  and  the  same 
thing;  the  Church  preaches  truth,  the  State  pursues 
expediency!  but  Christian  truth  is  measured  by 
political  expediency-.  Tilers  is  no  possible  thesis 
which  a  preacher  caii  put  forth)  of  a  synod  could 
define*  but  k  infallibly  ^eiermlned  ("  infallible55  k 
his  word)  by  the  political  expedience  and  experience 


206 

of  the  State.  But  if  this  be  really  so,  what  is  the 
use  of  this  second  Society,  which  you  put  forth  as 
naturally  independent  of  the  State,  and  as  so  high 
and  mighty  an  ally  of  it  ?  I  do  not  say  that  to 
preach  is  not  a  function  different  from  speaking  in 
Parliament,  or  reading  prayers  to  a  congregation 
from  sitting  in  a  police  court ;  the  functions  are  dif- 
ferent, and  the  functionaries  will  be  different.  But 
in  like  manner  the  function  of  a  police  magistrate  is 
different  from  the  function  of  a  speaker  in  Parlia* 
ment ;  but  you  do  not  have  a  distinct  society,  divine 
in  its  origin,  independent  in  its  constitution,  to 
exercise  jurisdiction  over  Parliament  or  Police.  I 
repeat,  unless  the  Church  has  something  to  say  and 
something  to  do,  very  different  from  what  the  State 
gays  and  does,  Erastianisrn  is  the  doctrine  of  common 
gense,  and  must  be  very  clearly  negatived  in  Scrips 
ture  to  be  discarded* 

1  will  refer  to  another  author  in  illustration ■ 
There  was  an  anonymous  work  published,  apparently 
in  the  character  of  a  Scotch  Episcopalian,  some 
years  before  the  movement  of  1833  j  which,  on 
supposed  principles  of  Scripture,  advocated  a  Branch 
or  National  Churchy  though  the  author  would,  1 
suppose*  have  preferred  the  words,  H  free,"  "  hide* 
pendent,"  or  "unestabUshed."  Judging  from  the 
internal  evidence,  the  world  identified  him  with  a 
vigorous  and  original  thinker,  whom  none  could  ap* 
pro&eh  without  being  get  thinking  ulso,  whether  with 


207 

Mm  or  contrary  to  hiin,  and  who  has  since  risen  to 
the  very  highest  rank  of  the  Anglican  hierarchy. 
He  Wrote,  partly  in  answer  to  Warburton,  and  partly 
to  exhibit  a  counter-view  of  his  own ;  but  he  is  an 
instance  of  the  same  unreality  and  inconsistency 
which  1  have  just  been  imputing  to  Warburton 
himself. 

"  The  supreme  head  on  earth,'5  he  says,  "  of  each 
branch  of  Christ's  Church,  should  evidently  be  some 
spiritual  officer  or  body.  Whether  the  governor  of 
the  English  Church  were  the  primate,  or  the  convo* 
cation,  or  both  conjointly,  or  any  other  man  or  body 
of  men5  holding  ecclesiastical  authority,  not  attached 
to  any  civil  office^  nor  in  the  gift  of  any  civil  govern 
nor,  in  either  case  the  non-secular  character  of 
Christ's  kingdom  Would  be  preserved ,  The  king? 
in  conjunction  with  the  other  branches  of  the  legis- 
lature) ought  to  have  a  distinctly  defined  temporal 
authority  over  every  one  of  his  subjects,  of  whatever 
nasion;  and,  of  consequence,  over  the  ministers 
and  all  other  members,  both,  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land and  of  every  othir  religious  community,  Chris- 
tlatt,  Jewish ,  <nj  Pagan,  within  his  dominions;  but 
ifeithei1  he?  nor  any  other  civil  power,  should  inter- 
fere with  articles  o(  faith,  liturgy,  Church  discipline, 
or?  any  other  spiritual,  matters,  The  kingdom  of 
wen  hag  no  king  but  Christy  ft&d  £k  delegated 
l{\*  authority  to  Apostles,  and  through  them  to 
Bishops  and  Pr esbvterg  \  not  to  any  secular  magis* 


208 

trates.  Dhese  therefore  ought  not,  by  virtue  of  tneir" 
civil  offices,  to  claim  the  appointment  to  any  offices 
in  the  Church."*  You  see,  my  brethren,  what 
clear  views  this  anonymous  writer  has  of  the  juris-* 
diction  of  the  Church ;  they  are  identical  with  your 
own,  or  rather  they  go  beyond  you* 

In  consequence  he  speaks  of  its  "  degrading"  the 
Sacred  character  of  Articles  and  Liturgy  j  "  that 
they  should  stand  upon  the  foundation  of  acts  of 
Parliament;  that  the  spiritual  rulers  cannot  alter 
them  when  they  may  need  it;  and  that  the  secular 
£ower  can,  whether  they  need  it  or  not.  And  aca 
eordingly,"  he  continuesj  "  it  is  almost  a  proverbial 
reproach,  that  yours  is  a  f  parliamentary  religion ;' 
that  you  worship  the  Almighty  as  the  act  directs  | 
and  that  you  are  bound  to  seek  for  salvation  i  ac* 
cording  to  the  law  in  that  case  made  and  provided,' 
by  king,  lords,  and  commons ;  under  the  directions 
of  the  ministers  of  State  J  of  persons, )}  he-  adds 
with  a  prophetic  eye  towards  1850,  a  wne  maj?  b© 
eminently  well  fitted  for  their  tii)U  omceS,  and  who" 
may  indeed  chance  to  be  not  only  exemplary  Chris* 
tians,  but  sound  divines*  but  who  certainly  are*  not 
appointed  to  their  respective  offices  with  any1  sort  of 
view  to  their  Spiritual  fufictionSj  who  cannot  §V6tt 
pretend  that  any  sort  of  Mu^imoaiion  for  the  good 
regulation  of  the  Chttfah  is  implied  hj  their  holding 

*  Utters  m  the  Chiirfch,  0, 131.    Lettgittftiii*  !§&« 


209 


such  stations  as  they  do.  Can  this  possibly  be 
agreeable  to  the  designs  and  institutions  of  Christ 
and  His  Apostles  ?  If  any  one  will  seriously  answer 
in  the  affirmative,  he  is  beyond  my  powers  of  argu- 
mentation."* 

Presently  he  observes,  "  The  English  Govern- 
ment seems  to  have  a  delight  and  a  pride,  in  not 
only  making  the  Clergy  do  as  much  as  possible  in 
return  for  the  protection  they  enjoy,  but  in  enforcing 
their  services  in  the  most  harsh  and  mortifying  way. 
Like  the  ancient  Persian  soldiers,  they  are  brought 
into  the  field  under  the  lash  of  perpetual  penalties, 
which  serve  to  keep  your  ministers  in  a  state  of 
degradation  as  well  as  of  dependence  on  the  State, 
which  I  defy  you  to  parallel  in  any  other  Christian 
Church  that  ever  existed.  "|  He  then  compares 
certain  of  the  clergy  to  the  dog  in  the  fable,  who 
mistook  the  clog  round  his  neck  for  a  badge  of 
honorable  distinction.  He  continues,  "  Altogether 
indeed,  I  cannot  but  say,  if  I  must  speak  out,  there 
is  another  fable  respecting  a  dog,  of  which  the  con- 
dition of  your  Church  strongly  reminds  me.  Your 
American  brethren,  for  instance,  and  some  others, 
might  say  to  you,  as  the  lean  and  hungry  wolf  dicl 
to  the  well-fed  mastiff,  i  You  are  fat  and  sleek  in- 
deed, while  I  am  gaunt  and  half-famished,  but  what 
means  that  mark  round  your  neck?'     You  must  do 


*  p.  119. 

t  p.  125, 


210 

this,  under  a  penalty ;  and  you  must  not  do  that, 
under  a  penalty ;  you  must  comply  with  the  rubric, 
and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  you  must  not  comply 

with  the  rubric In  short,  you  are  fettered 

and  crippled  and  disabled  in  every  joint,  by  your 
alliance  with  a  body  of  a  different  character,  which 
could  not,  even  with  the  best  intentions,  fail  to 
weaken  instead  of  aiding  you ;  but  which,  in  fact, 
aims  chiefly  at  making  a  tool  of  you.  But  some  of 
you  seem  so  habituated  to  this  dependence  of  the 
Church  on  the  State,  and  so  fond  of  it,  as  to  have 
even  solicited  interference  in  a  case  which  could  not 
concern  the  civil  community,  and  which  the  secular 
magistrate  was  likely  to  care  about  as  little  as  Gallic. 
An  English  bishop  did  not  dare  to  ordain  an  Ameri- 
can to  officiate  in  a  country  not  under  British  do- 
minion, without  asking  and  obtaining  permission  of 
his  government,  which  had  just  as  much  to  do  with 
the  business  as  the  government  of  Abyssinia."* 

Now,  all  this  is  very  ably  put,  and  very  true ;  but 
the  question  comes  upon  the  reader,  What  is  the 
meaning  and  object  of  the  sweeping  ecclesiastical 
changes  which  are  advocated  by  this  author  ?  We 
must  not  take  to  pieces  the  constitution  and  re-write 
the  law  for  nothing.  What  would  be  gained  by  his 
recommendations  practically  ?  And  what  are  they 
intended  to  accomplish  or  secure  ?     Is  it  a  gymnas- 

*  p.  129= 


211 

tieal  display  or  "  agonism,"  as  the  heathen  author 
calls  it,  from  the  academy  or  the  garden,  or  a  clever 
piece  of  irony  which  he  presents  to  our  perusal,  or 
is  it  the  grave  and  earnest  sermon  of  one  who  would 
practise  what  he  preaches,  and  would  not  partake  in 
what  he  condemns  ?  Now  I  will  do  the  writer  the 
justice  to  confess,  that  he  does  not  agree  with  War- 
burton  in  considering  that  truth  is  measured  by 
political  expediency.  He  is  too  honest,  too  gene- 
rous, too  high-minded,  too  sensible,  for  so  miserable 
a  paradox ;  but,  considering  the  far  higher  views  he 
takes  of  the  position  of  the  Church,  how  he  frets 
under  her  humiliation,  how  nobly  zealous  he  is  for 
her  liberty,  certainly  he  will  be  guilty  of  a  different 
indeed,  but  a  not  less  startling  paradox  himself,  if 
he  has  such  exalted  notions  of  the  Church,  and  yet 
gives  her  nothing  to  do.  Warburton  recognizes  the 
Church  in  order  to  destroy  it ;  he  thinks  it  never 
has  existed,  or  rather  never  ought  to  have  existed  in 
its  proper  nature,  but,  from  its  first  moment  of  crea- 
tion, ought  to  have  been  dissolved  into  the  consti- 
tution of  the  State.  But  our  author  makes  much 
ado  about  ecclesiastical  rights  and  privileges,  which 
he  considers  divinely  bestowed,  and,  therefore,  in- 
defeasible. He  thinks  the  Church  so  pure  and 
celestial,  as  to  be  insulted,  defiled,  by  any  communion 
with  things  simply  secular.  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of 
this  world,"  said  our  Lord,  and,  therefore,  it  seems, 
no  Ecclesiastical  person  must,  as  such,   have  a  seat 


212 

in  Parliament,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  neither  king 
nor  Parliament,  as  such,  must  be  able  to  appoint  a 
last  day.  "  It  was,"  he  says,  "  Satan  who  first 
proposed  an  alliance  between  the  Christian  Church 
and  the  State,  by  offering  temporal  advantages  in 
exchange  for  giving  up  some  of  the  l  things  that  be 
God's,'  and  which  we  ought  to  '  render  unto  God,' 
for  not  '  serving  Him  only,'  whom  only  we  ought  to 
serve.  The  next,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  who  pro- 
posed to  himself  this  scheme,  and  endeavored  to 
bring  it  about,  was  Judas  Iscariot."* 

Well,  then,  if  the  Church  be  a  kingdom,  or  go- 
vernment, not  of  this  world,  I  do  trust  you  have 
provided  for  her  a  message,  a  function,  not  of  this 
world,  something  distinct,  something  special,  some- 
thing which  the  world  cannot  do,  which  "  eye  hath 
not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  heart  of  man  conceived." 
It  is  not  enough  to  give  her  morality  to  preach 
about;  why  a  heaven- appointed  society  for  that? 
With  the  Bible  in  his  hands,  if  that  be  all,  I  do  not 
see  why  one  man,  if  properly  educated,  should  not 
preach  as  well  as  another,  without  any  disturbance 
of  the  rights  of  the  magistrate  or  the  order  of  civil 
society.  It  is  sometimes  said  in  bitterness  that  the 
Church's  work  is  priestcraft;  I  have  already  ac- 
cepted the  word  ;  it  is  a  craft ;  a  craft  in  the  same 
sense  that  goldsmiths'  work,  or  architecture,  or  legal 

*  p.  97. 


213 

science  is  a  craft;  it  must  have  its  teaching,  its 
intellectual  and  moral  habits,  its  long  experience,  its 
precedents,  its  traditions ;  nay,  it  must  have  all 
these  in  a  much  higher  sense  than  crafts  of  this 
world,  if  it  is  to  claim  to  come  from  above.  The 
more  certainly  the  Church  is  a  kingdom  of  heaven, 
and,  as  the  author  is  so  fond  of  saying,  "  not  of  this 
world,"  the  more  certain  is  it  that  she  must  have 
simply  a  heavenly  work  also,  which  the  world  cannot 
do  for  itself. 

Now,  I  fear,  I  must  say,  I  see  no  symptoms  at  all 
of  the  writer  in  question  intending  to  make  his  pat- 
tern-Church answer  to  this  most  reasonable  expec- 
tation. There  is  nothing  in  his  book  to  show  that 
he  entrusts  his  Church  with  any  special  doctrine  or 
work  of  any  kind.  Whatever  he  may  say,  there  is 
nothing  to  show  why  a  lawyer  not  in  full  business,  or 
a  physician,  or  a  scientific  professor,  or  a  country 
gentleman,  or  any  one  who  had  his  evenings  to  him- 
self, and  was  of  an  active  turn,  should  not  do  every 
thing  which  he  ascribes  to  his  heaven-born  society. 
If,  for  instance,  religion  had  its  mysteries,  if  it  had 
its  fertile  dogmas  and  their  varied  ramifications,  if 
it  had  its  theology,  if  it  had  its  long  line  of  mo- 
mentous controversies,  careful  ventilation  of  ques- 
tions, and  satisfactory  and  definitive  solutions;  if, 
moreover,  it  had  its  special  work,  its  substantial 
presence  in  the  midst  of  us,  its  daily  gifts  from 
heaven,  and  its  necessary  ministries  thence  arising, 


214 

then  we  should  see  the  meaning,  we  should  adore 
the  wisdom,  of  the  Divine  G-overnor  of  all,  in  having 
done  a  new  thing  upon  the  earth  when  Christ  came* 
ia  having  limited  the  jurisdiction  He  had  given  to 
the  State,  and  bestowed  it  on  a  special  ordinance 
created  for  a  special  purpose.  But  in  proportion  as 
this  author  comes  short  of  this  just  anticipation,  and 
disappoints  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  if  he  has 
nothing  better  to  tell  us  than  that  one  man's  opinion 
is  as  good  as  another's ;  that  Fathers  and  School- 
men, and  the  greater  number  of  Anglican  divines, 
are  puzzled-headed  or  dishonest ;  that  heretics  have 
at  least  this  good  about  them,  that  they  are  in  earnest, 
and  do  not  take  doctrines  for  granted;  that  religion 
is  simple,  and  theologians  have  made  it  hard ;  that 
controversy  is  on  the  whole  a  logomachy ;  that  we 
must  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth ;  that  we  ought 
to  love  truth ;  that  few  people  love  truth  for  its  own 
sake ;  that  we  ought  to  be  candid  and  dispassionate ; 
to  avoid  extremes;  to  eschew  party  spirit;  to  take 
a  rational  satisfaction  in  contemplating  the  works  of 
nature ;  and  not  to  speculate  about  things  unseen ; 
that  our  Lord  came  to  teach  us  all  this,  and  to  gain 
us  immortality  by  His  death,  and  the  promise  of 
spiritual  assistance,  and  that  this  is  pretty  nearly  the 
whole  of  theology ;  and  that  at  least  all  is  in  the 
Bible,  which  every  one  may  read  for  himself  (and  I 
see  no  evidence  whatever  of  his  going  much  beyond 
this  round  of  teaching)  ;  then,  I  say,  if  the  work  and 


215 

mission  of  Christianity  be  so  level  in  its  exercise  to 
the  capacities  of  the  State,  surely  its  ministry  also 
is  within  the  State's  jurisdiction.  I  cannot  believe 
that  Bishops,  and  clergymen,  and  councils,  and  con- 
vocations have  been  divinely  sent  into  the  world,  to 
broach  opinions,  to  discuss  theories,  to  talk  literature, 
to  display  the  results  of  their  own  speculations  on 
the  text  of  Scripture,  to  create  a  brilliant,  ephemeral, 
ever-varying  theology,  to  say  in  one  generation  what 
the  next  will  unsay ;  else,  why  were  not  our  debating 
clubs  and  our  scientific  societies  ennobled  with  a 
divine  charter  also  ?  God  surely  did  not  create  the 
visible  Church  for  the  protection  of  private  judg- 
ment :  private  judgment  is  quite  able  to  take  care 
of  itself.  This  is  no  day  for  what  are  popularly 
called  "shams."  Many  as  are  its  errors,  it  is 
aiming  at  the  destruction  of  shadows  and  the  attain- 
ment of  what  is  either  sensibly  or  intellectually  tan- 
gible. Why,  then,  should  we  have  so  much  bustle 
and  turmoil  about  "  supremacy,"  and  "  protection," 
and  "  alliance,"  and  "  authority,"  and  "  indefeasible 
rights,"  and  "  encroachments,"  and  "  usurpations,'*' 
after  the  manner  of  this  writer,  if  the  effort  and 
elaboration  are  to  be  in  their  result  but  a  mountain 
in  labor,  bringing  forth  nothing  ? 

The  State  claims  the  allegiance  of  its  subjects  on 
the  ground  of  the  tangible  benefits  of  which  it  is  the 
instrument  towards  them.  Its  strength  lies  in  this 
undeniable  fact,  and  they  endure  and  they  maintain 


216 

its  coercion  and  its  laws,  because  the  certainty  of 
this  fact  is  ever  present  to  their  minds.  What  mean 
the  array  and  the  pomp  which  surround  the  Sove- 
reign ?  The  strict  ceremonial,  the  minute  etiquette, 
the  almost  unsleeping  watchfulness  which  eyes  her 
every  motion,  which  follows  her  into  her  garden  and 
her  chamber,  which  notes  down  every  shade  of  her 
countenance  and  every  variation  of  her  pulse? 
Why  do  her  soldiers  hover  about  her,  and  officials 
line  her  ante-rooms,  and  cannon  and  illumination 
carry  forward  the  tiding  of  her  progresses  among 
her  people  ?  Is  this  all  a  mockery  ?  Is  it  done  for 
nothing  ?  Surely  not ;  in  her  is  centered  the  order, 
the  security,  the  happiness  of  a  great  people.  And, 
in  like  manner,  the  Church  must  be  the  guardian  of 
a  fact ;  she  must  have  something  to  produce ;  she 
must  have  something  to  do.  It  is  not  enough  to  be 
keeper  of  even  an  inspired  book :  for  there  is  nothing 
to  show  that  her  protection  of  it  is  necessary  at  this 
day.  The  State  might  fairly  commit  its  custody  to 
the  art  of  printing,  and  dissolve  an  institution  whose 
occupation  was  no  more.  She  must  do  that,  in 
order  to  have  a  meaning,  which  otherwise  cannot  be 
done;  which  she  alone  can  do.  She  must  have  a 
benefit  to  bestow,  in  order  to  be  worth  her  existence  ; 
and  the  benefit  must  be  a  fact  which  no  one  can 
doubt  about.  It  must  not  be  an  opinion,  or  matter 
of  opinion,  but  a  something  which  is  like  a  first 
principle,  which  may  be  taken  for  granted,  a  foun- 


217 

datioii  indubitable  and  irresistible.  In  other  words, 
she  must  have  a  dogma  and  Sacraments ;  it  is  a 
dogma  and  Sacraments,  and  nothing  else,  which  can 
give  meaning  to  a  Church,  or  sustain  her  against  the 
State ;  for  by  these  are  meant  certain  facts  or  acts 
which  are  special  instruments  of  spiritual  good  to 
those  who  receive  them.  As  we  do  not  gain  the 
benefits  of  civil  society  unless  we  submit  to  its  laws 
and  customs,  so  we  do  not  gain  the  spiritual  blessings 
which  the  Church  has  to  bestow  upon  us,  unless  we 
receive  Her  dogmas  and  Her  Sacraments. 

This,  you  know,  is  understood  by  every  fanatic 
who  would  collect  followers  and  form  a  sect.  Who 
would  ever  dream  of  collecting  a  congregation  and 
having  nothing  to  say  to  them  ?  No ;  they  think 
they  have  that  to  offer  to  the  world  which  cannot 
otherwise  be  obtained.  They  do  not  bring  forward 
mere  opinions;  they  do  not  preach  a  disputable 
doctrine ;  but  they  assert,  boldly  and  simply,  that 
he  who  believes  them  will  be  saved.  They  announce, 
for  instance,  that  every  one  must  undergo  the  new 
birth,  and  for  this  they  organize  their  society ;  viz., 
in  order  to  preach  and  to  testify,  to  realize  and  to 
perpetuate  in  the  world  this  great  and  necessary 
fact,  the  new  birth  of  the  soul.  Or,  again,  they 
have  a  commission  to  do  miracles,  or  they  can  pro- 
phesy, or  they  are  sent  to  declare  the  end  of  the 
world.  Something  or  other  they  do,  which  the  ex- 
10 


218 


isting  establishments  of  Church  and  State  do  not, 
and  cannot  do. 

This  being  the  state  of  the  case,  consider  how 
entirely  the  reasonable  anticipation  of  our  minds  is 
fulfilled  in  the  professions  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
A  Protestant  wanders  into  one  of  our  chapels ;  he 
sees  a  priest  kneeling,  and  bowing,  and  throwing  up 
a  thurible,  and  boys  in  cottas  going  in  and  out,  and 
a  whcle  choir  and  people  singing  amain  all  the  time, 
and  he  has  nothing  to  suggest  to  him  what  it  is  all 
about ;  and  he  calls  it  mummery,  and  he  walks  out 
again .  And  would  it  not,  indeed,  be  so,  my  brethren, 
if  this  were  all?  But  will  he  think  it  mummery 
when  he  learns  and  seriously  apprehends  the  fact, 
that,  according  to  the  belief  of  a  Catholic,  the  Im- 
maculate Lamb,  the  Second  Person  of  the  Eternal 
Trinity,  is  th^rc  bodily  present, — hidden,  indeed, 
from  our  senses,  but  in  no  Other  way  withheld  from 
us  V  He  may  reject  what  we  believe ;  he  will  not 
wonder  at  what  we  do.  And  so  again,  open  the 
Missal,  read  the  minute  directions  as  to  the  celebra- 
tion of  Mass ;  what  is  the  fit  disposition  under  which 
the  Priest  prepares  for  it,  how  he  is  to  arrange  his 
every  action,  movement,  gesture,  accent,  during  the 
course  of  it,  and  what  is  to  be  done  in  case  of  a 
variety  of  supposable  accidents.  What  a  mockery 
would  all  this  be,  if  the  rite  meant  nothing !  But 
if  it  be  a  fact  that  God  the  Son  is  there  offered  up 
in  human  flesh  and  blood  by  the  hands  of  man,  why 


219 

it  is  plain  that  no  anxious  and  elaborate  rite  is  equal 
to  the  depth  of  the  overwhelming  thoughts  which  are 
borne  in  upon  the  mind.  Thus  the  usages  and 
ordinances  of  the  Church  do  not  exist  for  their  own 
sake ;  they  do  not  stand  of  themselves ;  they  are 
not  sufficient  for  themselves ;  they  do  not  fight 
against  the  State  their  own  battle;  they  are  not 
appointed  as  ultimate  ends ;  but  they  are  dependent 
on  an  inward  substance ;  they  protect  a  mystery ; 
they  defend  a  dogma ;  they  represent  an  idea ;  they 
preach  good  tidings  ;  they  are  the  channels  of  grace. 
They  are  the  outward  shape  of  an  inward  reality  or 
fact,  which  no  Catholic  doubts,  which  is  assumed  as 
a  first  principle,  which  is  not  an  inference  of  reason, 
but  the  object  of  a  spiritual  sense.  Herein  is  the 
strength  of  the  Church ;  herein  she  differs  from  all 
Protestant  mockeries  of  her.  She  professes  to  be 
built  upon  facts,  not  opinions  ;  on  objective  truths, 
not  on  variable  sentiments ;  on  immemorial  testi- 
mony, not  on  private  judgment ;  on  convictions  or 
discernments,  not  on  conclusions.  None  else  but 
she  can  make  this  profession.  She  makes  high 
claims  against  the  temporal  power,  but  she  has  that 
within  her  which  justifies  them.  She  merely  acts 
out  what  she  says  she  is.  She  does  no  more  than 
she  reasonably  should  do.  If  God  has  given  her  a 
work  of  her  own,  no  wonder  she  is  not  under  the 
civil  magistrate  in  matters  of  revelation.  If  her 
Clergy  be  Priests,  if  they  can  forgive  sins,  and  bring 


220 

the  Son  of  G-od  upon  her  altars,  it  is  obvious  the^ 
cannot  hold  of  the  State.  If  they  were  not,  the 
sooner  they  were  put  under  a  minister  of  public 
instruction  and  the  Episcopate  abolished,  the  better. 
She  has  not  disturbed  the  world  for  nothing.  Her 
precision  and  pereraptoriness,  all  that  is  laid  to  her 
charge  as  intolerance  and  exclusiveness,  her  claim 
entirely  to  understand  and  to  be  able  to  deal  with 
her  own  deposit  and  her  own  functions ;  her  claim 
to  reveal  the  unknown  and  to  communicate  the  in- 
visible, is,  in  the  eye  of  reason,  (so  far  from  being 
an  objection  to  her  coming  from  above,)  the  very 
tenure  of  her  high  mission,  just  what  she  would  be 
sure  to  assert,  if  she  did.  She  cannot  be  conceived 
without  her  message  and  her  gifts.  She  is  the  organ 
and  oracle,  and  nothing  else,  of  a  supernatural 
doctrine,  which  is  independent  of  individuals,  given 
once  for  all,  coming  down  from  the  first  ages,  and  so 
deeply  and  intimately  embosomed  in  her,  that  it 
cannot  be  clean  torn  out  of  her,  even  if  you  would 
try  ;  but  gradually  and  majestically  come's  forth  into 
dogmatic  shape,  as  time  goes  on,  and  need  requires, 
still  by  no  private  judgment,  but  at  the  will  of  its 
Giver,  and  by  the  infallible  elaboration  of  the  whole 
body ;  and  which  is  simply  necessary  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  soul.  It  is  not  a  philosophy,  or  litera- 
ture, cognizable  and  attainable  at  once  by  those  who 
cast  their  eyes  that  way ;  but  it  is  a  sacred  deposit 
and  tradition,  a  mystery  or  secret,  as  Scripture  calls 


221 

it,  sufficient  to  arrest  and  occupy  the  whole  intellect, 
and  unlike  anything  else ;  and  hence  requiring,  from 
the  nature  of  the  case,  organs  special  to  itself,  made 
for  the  purpose,  whether  for  entering  into  its  fulness, 
or  carrying  it  out  in  deed. 

And  now,  my  brethren,  you  may  have  been  some  time 
asking  yourselves,  how  all  this  bears  upon  the  parti- 
cular subject,  on  which  these  Lectures  are  engaged  ; 
and  yet  I  think  it  bears  upon  it  very  closely  and 
significantly.  You  may  have  said,  in  answer  to  my 
Lecture  of  yesterday : — "  We  do  not  aim  at  forming 
a  Branch  Church  ;  we  put  before  us  a  really  humble 
work.  We  have  no  ambition,  no  expectation,  of 
spreading  through  the  nation,  or  of  spreading  at  all. 
We  do  but  mean  to  preserve  for  future  times  what 
we  hold  to  be  the  truth.  As  books  are  consigned  to 
some  large  library,  with  a  single  view  to  their  se- 
curity, not  let  out  to  the  world,  and  apparently 
useless,  but  yet  with  a  definite  object  and  benefit, — 
'though  for  no  other  cause,  yet  for  this,'  as  Hooker 
says,  '  that  posterity  may  know  we  have  not  loosely 
through  silence  permitted  things  to  pass  away  as  in 
a  dream,' — so,  we  care  not  to  be  successful  in  our 
day ;  we  are  willing  to  be  despised  ;  we  do  but  aim 
at  transmitting  Catholic  doctrine  in  its  purest  and 
most  primitive  form  to  posterity.  We  are  willing 
to  look  like  a  small  sect  at  the  gate  of  the  National 
Church,  when  really  we  are  the  heirs  of  the  Apostles. 
We  do  not  boast  of  this  ;  we  do  not  wish  to  inflict 


222 

it  upon  the  world  ;  leave  us  to  ourselves  quietly  and 
unostentatiously  to  transmit  our  burden  to  posterity 
in  our  own  way." 

I  say  ia  reply,  my  brethren,  that  so  far  you  are 
right,  that  you  profess  to  have  something  to  trans- 
mit ;  but  be  sure  you  have  it,  and  know  what  it  is. 
It  will  not  do  to  have  only  a  vague  idea  of  it,  if  it 
is  to  form  the  basis  of  a  sect ;  you  must  be  at  home 
with  it,  and  must  have  surveyed  it  in  its  various 
aspects,  and  must  be  clear  about  it,  and  be  prepared 
to  state  decisively  to  all  inquirers  its  ground,  its 
details,  and  its  consequences,  and  must  be  able  to 
say,  unequivocally,  that  it  comes  from  heaven  ; — or 
it  will  not  serve  your  purpose.  I  am  not  sanguine 
that  you  will  be  able  to  do  this  even  as  regards  the 
Sacrament  of  Baptism ;  differences  have  already 
arisen  among  you  as  to  the  relative  importance,  at 
leastunder  circumstances,  of  separate  parts  of  the 
doctrine ;  and  when  you  come  to  define  the  conse- 
quences of  sin  after  it,  and  the  remedies,  your  varia- 
tions and  uncertainties  will  be  greater  still.  And 
much  more  of  other  doctrines ;  there  is  hardly  one, 
of  which  you  will  be  able  to  take  a  clear  and  com- 
plete view.  I  say,  then,  Do  not  set  up  a  sect,  till 
you  are  quite  sure  what  it  will  have  to  teach. 

In  the  commencement  of  the  movement  of  1833, 
much  interest  was  felt  in  the  Non-jurors.  It  was 
natural,  that  inquirers  who  had  drawn  their  princi- 
ples from  the  Primitive  Church,  should  be  attracted 


223 

by  the  exhibition  of  any  portion  of  those  principles 
any  where  in,  or  about,  an  Establishment  which  was 
so  emphatically  opposed  to  them.  Therefore,  in 
their  need,  they  fixed  their  eyes  on  a  body  of  men 
who  were  not  only  sufferers  for  conscience  sake,  but 
held,  in  connexion  with  their  political  principles,  a 
certain  portion  of  Catholic  truth.  But,  after  all, 
what  is,  in  a  word,  the  history  of  the  Non-jurors, 
for  it  does  not  take  long  to  tell  it  ?  A  party,  com- 
posed of  seven  Bishops  and  some  hundred  Clergy, 
virtuous  and  learned,  and,  as  regards  their  leaders, 
even  popular,  for  political  services  lately  rendered  to 
the  nation,  is  hardly  formed  but  it  begins  to  dissolve 
and  come  to  nought,  and  that,  simply  because  it  had 
no  sufficient  object,  represented  no  idea,  and  pro- 
claimed no  dogma.  What  should  keep  it  together? 
why  should  it  exist  ?  To  form  an  association  is  to 
go  out  of  the  way,  and  ever  requires  an  excuse  or 
an  account  of  the  proceeding.  Such  were  the  ancient 
apologies  put  forward  for  the  Church  in  her  first 
age ;  such  the  apologies  of  the  Anglican  Jewell,  and 
the  Quaker  Barclay.  What  was  the  apology  of  the 
Non-jurors  ?  Now  their  secession,  properly  speak- 
ing, was  based  on  no  theological  truth  at  all ;  it 
arose  simply  because,  as  their  name  signifies,  certain 
Bishops  and  Clergy  could  not  take  the  oaths  to  a 
new  King.  There  is  something  very  venerable  and 
winning  in  Bishop  Ken ;  but  this  arises  in  part  from 
fche  very  fact  that  he  was  so  little  disposed  to  defend 


2::4 

any  position,  or  oppose  things  as  they  were.  He 
could  not  take  the  oaths,  and  was  dispossessed ;  but 
he  had  nothing  special  to  say  for  himself;  he  had  no- 
message  to  deliver ;  and  he  was  unwilling  that  the 
Non-juring  Succession  should  be  continued.  It  was 
against  his  judgment  to  perpetuate  his  own  com- 
munion. But  look  at  the  body  in  its  more  theolo- 
gical aspect,  and  its  negative  and  external  character 
is  brought  out  even  more  strikingly.  Its  members 
had  much  more  to  say  against  the  Catholic  Church, 
like  Protestants  in  general,  than  for  themselves. 
They  are  considered  especially  high  in  their  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Eucharist ;  yet  I  do  not  know  anything 
in  Dr.  Brett's  whole  Treatise  on  the  Ancient  Litur- 
gies, which  fixes  itself  so  vividly  on  the  reader's 
mind,  as  his  assertion,  that  the  rubrics  of  the  Roman 
Missal  are  "  corrupt,  dangerous,  superstitious,  abo- 
minably idolatrous,  theatrical,  and  utterly  unworthy 
the  gravity  of  so  sacred  an  institution."  The  Non- 
jurors were  far  less  certain  what  they  did  hold,  than 
what  they  did  not.  They  were  great  champions  of 
the  Sacrifice,  and  wished  to  restore  the  ancient 
Liturgies ;  yet  they  could  not  raise  their  minds  to 
anything  higher  than  the  sacrifice  of  the  material 
bread  and  wine,  as  representatives  of  One,  who  was 
not  literally  present  but  absent,  as  symbols  of  His 
Body  and  Blood,  not  in  truth  and  fact,  but  in  power 
and  effect.  Yet,  while  they  had  such  insufficient 
notions  of  the  heavenly  gift  committed  to  the  ordi- 


225 

nance,  they  could,  as  I  have  said,  be  very  jealous  of 
its  outward  formalities,  and  laid  the  greatest  stress 
on  a  point,  important  certainly  in  its  place,  but  not 
when  separated  from  that  which  gave  it  meaning 
and  life,  the  mixing  of  the  water  with  the  wine ;  and 
upon  this,  and  other  questions,  of  higher  moment 
indeed,  but  not  of  a  character  specifically  different, 
they  soon  divided  into  two  communions.  They 
broke  into  pieces,  not  from  external  causes,  not 
from  the  hostility  or  the  allurements  of  a  court,  but 
simply  because  they  had  no  common  heart  and  life 
in  them.  They  were  safe  from  the  civil  sword,  from 
their  insignificancy ;  they  had  no  need  of  falling 
back  on  a  distant  centre,  had  they  been  united  to 
one ;  all  they  needed  was  an  idea,  an  object,  a  work, 
to  make  them  one. 

But  I  have  another  remark  to  make  on  the  Non- 
jurors. You  recollect,  my  brethren,  that  they  are 
the  continuation  and  heirs  of  the  traditions,  so  to 
call  them,  of  the  High- Church  divines  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Now,  how  high  and  imposing  do 
the  names  sound  of  Andrewes,  Laud,  Taylor,  Jack- 
son, Pearson,  Cosin,  rnd  their  fellows? — I  am  not 
speaking  against  them  as  individuals,  but  viewing 
them  as  theological  authorities. — How  great  and 
mysterious  are  the  doctrines  which  they  teach !  and 
how  proudly  they  appeal  to  primitive  times,  and 
claim  the  ancient  Fathers!  Surely,  as  some  one 
says  "  in  Laud  is  our  Cyprian,  and  in  Taylor  is  our 
10* 


226 

Chrysostom,  and  all  we  want  is  our  Athanasius." 
Look,  my  brethren,  at  the  history  of  the  Non-jurors, 
and  you  wiil  see  what  these  divines  were  worth. 
There  you  will  see  that  it  was  simply  their  position, 
their  temporal  possessions,  their  civil  Hignities,  as 
standing  round  a  King's  throne,  or  seated  in  his 
great  council,  and  not  their  principles,  which  made 
them  what  they  were.  Their  genius,  learning,  faith, 
whatever  it  was,  could  not  have  stood  by  themselves ; 
these  qualities  had  no  substance,  for,  when  the  State 
abandoned  them,  they  shrank  at  once,  and  collapsed, 
and  ceased  to  be.  These  qualities  were  not  the 
stuff  out  of  which  a  Church  is  made,  though  they 
looked  well  and  bravely  upon  the  Establishment. 
Yet,  I  say,  they  did  not,  in  the  event,  wear  better  in 
the  Establishment  than  out  of  it ;  for  since,  at  the 
Revolution,  the  Establishment  had  changed  its  make 
and  altered  its  position,  the  old  vestments  would  not 
fit  it,  and  fell  out  of  fashion.  The  Nation  and  the 
National  Church  had  got  new  ideas,  and  the  language 
of  the  ancient  Fathers  could  not  express  them. 
There  were  those,  who,  at  the  era  in  question,  took 
the  oaths;  they  could  secure  their  positions,  could 
they  secure  their  creed  ?  The  event  answers  the 
question.  There  is  some  story  of  Ball  and  Beve- 
ridge,  who  were  two  of  the  number,  meeting  toge- 
ther, I  think  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  mourning 
together  over  the  degeneracy  of  the  times.  The 
times  certainly  were  degenerate;  and  if  learning 
could  have  restored  them,  there  was  enough  in  those 


227 

two  intellects  and  memories  to  have  done  the  work 
of  Athanasius,  Leo,  and  the  seventh  Gregory ;  but 
learning  never  made  a  body  live.  The  High  Church 
party  died  out  within  the  Establishment,  as  well  as 
out  of  it,  for  it  had  neither  dogma  to  rest  upon,  nor 
object  to  pursue. 

All  this  is  your  warning,  by  brethren ;  you  too, 
when  it  comes  to  the  point,  will  have  nothing  to 
profess,  to  teach,  to  transmit.  At  present  you  do 
not  know  your  own  weakness.  You  have  the  life 
of  the  Establishment  in  you,  and  you  fancy  it  is 
your  own  life;  you  fancy  that  the  accidental  con- 
geries of  opinions,  which  forms  your  creed,  has  that 
unity,  individuality,  and  consistency,  which  allows 
of  its  developing  into  a  system,  and  perpetuating  a 
school.  Look  into  the  matter  more  steadily;  it  is 
very  pleasant  to  decorate  your  chapels,  oratories, 
and  studies  now ;  but  you  cannot  be  doing  this  for 
ever.  It  is  pleasant  to  adopt  a  habit  or  a  vestment ; 
to  use  your  office  book  or  your  beads ;  but  it  is  like 
feeding  on  flowers,  unless  you  have  that  objective 
vision  in  your  faith,  and  that  satisfaction  in  your 
reason,  of  which  devotional  exercises  and  ecclesias- 
tical appointments  are  the  suitable  expression. 
They  will  not  last  on  the  long  run,  unless  commanded 
and  rewarded  on  divine  authority ;  they  cannot  be 
made  to  rest  on  the  influence  of  individuals.  It  is 
well  to  have  rich  architecture,  curious  works  of  art, 
and  splendid  vestments,  when  you  have  a  present- 
God  ;  but  0  !  what  a  mockery,  if  you  have  not  I 


228 

If  your  externals  surpass  what  is  within,  you  are, 
so  far,  as  hollow  as  your  evangelical  opponents  who 
baptize,  yet  expect  no  grace ;  or,  as  the  latitudina- 
rian  writer  I  have  been  reviewing,  who  would  make 
Christ's  kingdom  not  of  this  world,  in  order  to  do 
little  more  than  a  worldly  work.  Thus  your  Church 
becomes,  not  a  home,  but  a  sepulchre ;  like  those 
high  cathedrals,  once  Catholic,  which  you  do  not 
know  what  to  do  with,  which  you  shut  up,  and  make 
monuments  of,  sacred  to  the  memory  of  what  has 
passed  away. 

Therefore  I  say  now,  as  I  have  said  years  ago, 
when  others  have  wished  to  uphold  their  party,  when 
their  arguments  had  broken  under  them, — Find  out 
first  of  all  where  you  stand,  take  your  position,  write 
down  your  creed,  draw  up  your  catechism.  Tell  me 
why  you  form  your  party,  under  what  conditions, 
how  long  it  is  to  last,  what  are  your  relations  to  the 
Establishment,  and  to  the  other  branches  (as  you 
speak)  of  the  Universal  Church,  how  you  stand 
relatively  to  antiquity,  what  is  antiquity,  whether 
you  accept  the  via  mediat  whether  you  are  zealous 
for  "Apostolical  order,"  what  is  jour  rule  of  faith, 
bow  do  you  prove  it,  and  what  are  your  doctrines. 
It  is  easy  for  a  while,  to  be  doing  merely  what  you 
do  at  present;  to  remain  where  you  are,  till  it  is 
proved  to  you  that  you  must  go ;  to  refuse  to  say 
what  you  hold  and  what  you  do  not,  and  to  act  only 
on  the  offensive ;  but  you  cannot  do  this  for  ever. 
The  time  is  coming,  or  is  come,  when  you  must  act 


229 

in  some  way  or  other  for  yourselves,  unless  you  would 
drift  to  some  form  of  infidelity,  or  give  up  principle 
altogether,  or  believe  or  not  believe  by  accident. 
The  onus  probandi  will  be  on  your  side  then.  Now 
you  are  content  to  be  negative  and  fragmentary  in 
doctrine ;  you  aim  at  nothing  higher  than  smart 
articles  in  newspapers  and  magazines,  at  clever  hits, 
spirited  attacks,  raillery,  satire,  skirmishing  on  posts 
of  your  own  selecting,  fastening  on  weak  points,  or 
what  you  think  so,  in  Dissenters  or  Catholics ;  in- 
venting ingenious  retorts,  evading  dangerous  ques- 
tions; parading  this  or  that  isolated  doctrine  as 
essential,  and  praising  this  or  that  Catholic  practice 
or  Catholic  saint,  to  make  up  for  abuse,  and  to  show 
your  impartiality;  and  taking  all  along  a  high, 
eclectic,  patronizing,  indifferent  tone  ;  this  has  been 
for  some  time  past  your  line,  and  it  will  not  suffice; 
it  excites  no  respect,  it  creates  no  confidence,  it 
inspires  no  hope. 

And  when,  at  length,  you  have  one  and  all  agreed 
upon  your  creed,  and  developed  it  doctrinally, 
morally,  and  polemically,  then  find  for  it  some  safe 
foundation,  deeper^and  firmer  than  private  judgment, 
which  may  ensure  its  transmission  and  continuance 
to  generations  to  come.  And,  when  you  have  done 
all  this,  then,  last  of  all,  persuade  others  and  your- 
selves, that  the  foundation  you  have  formed  is  surer 
and  more  trustworthy  than  Erastianism  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  immemorial  and  uninterrupted  tradition 
on  the  other. 


LECTURE  VIII. 


POLITICAL    STATE    OF    CATHOLIC    COUNTRIES    NO    PRE- 
JUDICE  TO   THE   SANCTITY    OF   THE    CHURCH. 

I  have  been  engaged  in  many  Lectures  in  showing 
that  your  place,  my  brethren,  if  you  own  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  movement  of  1833,  is  no  where  else 
but  the  Catholic  Church.  To  this  you  may  answer, 
that,  even  though  I  had  been  unanswerable,  I  had 
not  done  much,  for  my  argument  has,  on  the  whole, 
been  a  negative  one ;  that  there  are  difficulties  on 
both  sides  of  the  controversy;  that  I  have  been 
enlarging  on  the  Protestant  difficulty,  but  there  are 
not  a  few  Catholic  difficulties  also  ;  that,  to  be  sure, 
you  are  not  very  happy  in  the  Establishment,  but 
you  have  serious  misgivings  whether  you  would  be 
happier  with  us.  Moreover,  you  might  mention  the 
following  objection,  in  particular,  as  prominent  and 
very  practical,  which  weighs  with  you  a  great  deal, 
and  warns  you  off  the  ground  whither  I  am  trying 


231 

to  lead  you.  You  are  much  offended,  you  say,  with 
the  bad  state  of  Catholics  abroad,  and  their  unin- 
teresting character  every  where,  compared  with 
Protestants.  Those  countries,  you  say,  which  have 
retained  Catholicism,  are  notoriously  behind  the 
age ; — they  have  not  kept  up  with  the  march  of 
civilization ;  they  are  ignorant,  and,  in  a  measure, 
barbarous ;  they  have  the  faults  of  barbarians ;  they 
have  no  self-command ;  they  cannot  be  trusted. 
They  must  be  treated  as  slaves,  or  they  rebel ;  they 
emerge  out  of  their  superstitions  in  order  to  turn 
infidels.  They  cannot  combine  and  coalesce  in 
social  institutions ;  they  want  the  very  faculty  of 
citizenship.  The  sword,  not  the  law,  is  their  ruler. 
They  are  spectacles  of  idleness,  slovenliness,  want 
of  spirit,  disorder,  dirt,  and  dishonesty.  There 
must  then  be  something  in  their  religion  to  account 
for  this ;  it  keeps  them  children,  and  then,  being 
children,  they  keep  to  it.  No  man  in  his  senses, 
certainly  no  English  gentleman,  would  abandon  the 
high  station  which  his  country  both  occupies  and 
bestows  on  him,  in  the  eyes  of  man,  to  make  himself 
the  co-religionist  of  such  slaves,  and  the  creature 
of  such  a  Creed. 

I  propose  to  make  a  suggestion  in  answer  to  this 
objection;  and,  in. making  it,  I  shall  consider  you, 
my  brethren,  not  infidels,  who  are  careless  whether 
this  objection  strikes  at  Christianity  or  no ;  nor 
Protestants  proper,  who  have  no  concern,  so  to  ex- 


232 

press  themselves,  as  not  to  compromise  the  first 
centuries  of  the  Church ;  but  as  those  who  feel  that 
the  Catholic  Church  is  from  God ;  that  the  Esta- 
blishment is  not  the  Catholic  Church  ;  that  nothing 
but  the  Church  of  Rome  can  be ;  for  this  is  what  I 
have  been  proving  in  my  preceding  Lectures. 
What,  then,  you  are  saying  comes,  in  fact,  to  this  : 
We  would  rather  deny  our  principles,  than  accept 
such  a  development  of  them  ;  we  would  rather  be- 
lieve Erastianism,  and  all  its  train  of  consequences, 
to  be  from  God,  than  the  religion  of  such  countries 
as  France,  Spain,  and  Italy.  This  is  what  you  must 
mean  to  say,  and  nothing  short  of  it. 

I  simply  deny  the  justice  of  your  argument,  my 
brethren  ;  and,  to  show  you  that  I  am  not  framing  a 
view  for  the  occasion,  and,  moreover,  in  order  to 
start  with  a  principle,  which,  perhaps,  you  yourselves 
have  before  now  admitted,  I  will  quote  words  which 
I  used  myself  twelve  years  ago : — "  If  we  were 
asked  what  was  the  object  of  Christian  preaching, 
teaching,  and  instruction ;  what  the  office  of  the 
Church,  considered  as  the  dispenser  of  the  word  of 
God,  I  suppose  we  should  not  all  return  the  same 
answer.  Perhaps  we  might  say  that  the  object  of 
Revelation  was  to  enlighten  and  enlarge  the  mind, 
to  make  us  act  by  reason,  and  to  expand  and 
strengthen  our  powers :  or  to  impart  knowledge 
about  religious  truth,  knowledge  being  power  di- 
rectly it  is  given,  and  enabling  us  forthwith  to  think, 


233 

judge,  and  act  for  ourselves ;  or  to  make  us  good 
members  of  the  community,  loyal  subjects,  orderly 
and  useful  in  our  station,  whatever  it  be ;  or  to  se- 
cure, what  otherwise  would  be  hopeless,  our  leading 
a  religious  life ;  the  reason  why  persons  go  wrong, 
throw  themselves  away,  follow  bad  courses,  and  lose 
their  character,  being,  that  they  have  had  no  educa- 
tion, that  they  are  ignorant.  These  and  other 
answers  might  be  given ;  some  beside,  and  some 
short  of  the  mark.  It  may  be  useful,  then,  to  con- 
sider with  what  end,  with  what  expectation,  we 
preach,  teach,  instruct,  discuss,  bear  witness,  praise, 
and  blame ;  what  fruit  the  Church  is  right  in  an- 
ticipating as  the  result  of  her  ministerial  labors. 
St.  Paul  gives  us  a  reason  ....  different  from  any 
of  those  which  I  have  mentioned.  He  labors  more 
than  all  the  Apostles.  And  why  ?  Not  to  civilize 
the  world,  not  to  smoothe  the  face  of  society,  not  to 
facilitate  the  movements  of  civil  government,  not  to 
spread  abroad  knowledge,  not  to  cultivate  the  rea- 
son, not  for  any  great  worldly  object,  but  '  for  the 
elect's  sake.'  ....  And  such  is  the  office  of  the 
Church  in  every  nation  where  she  sojourns ;  she  at- 
tempts much;  she  expects  and  promises  little."* 

I  do  not,  of  course,  deny  that  the  Church  does  a 
great  deal  more  than  she  promises ;  she  fulfils  a 
number  of  secondary  ends,  and  is  the  means  of  num- 


*  Paroch.  Serm.  vol.iv, 


z34 

berless  temporal  blessings  to  any  country  which 
receives  her.  I  only  say,  she  is  not  to  be  estimated 
and  measured  by  such  effects ;  and  if  you  think  she 
is,  my  brethren,  then  I  must  rank  you  with  such 
Erastians  as  Warburton,  who,  as  I  have  shown  you 
in  a  former  Lecture,  considered  political  convenience 
to  be  the  test  and  standard  of  truth. 

I  have  now  begun  with  a  consideration  which  I 
fully  recognized  before  I  was  a  Catholic ;  and  now 
I  proceed  to  another,  which  has  been  forced  on  me, 
as  a  matter  of  fact  and  experience,  most  powerfully 
ever  since,  as  it  must  be  forced  on  every  Catholic ; 
and  therefore,  like  the  former,  has  not  at  all  origi- 
nated in  the  need,  or  is  put  forth  for  the  occasion 
to  meet  a  difficulty. 

T!ie  Church,  you  know,  is  in  warfare ;  her  life 
here  below  is  one  long  battle.  But  with  whom  is 
she  fighting  ?  For  till  we  know  her  enemy  we  shall 
not  be  able  to  estimate  the  skill  of  her  tactics,  the 
object  of  her  evolutions,  or  the  success  of  her  move- 
ments. We  shall  be  like  civilians,  contemplating 
a  field  of  battle,  and  seeing  much  dust,  and  smoke, 
and  motion,  much  defiling,  charging,  and  manoeuv- 
ring, but  quite  at  a  loss  to  tell  the  meaning  of  it  all, 
or  which  party  is  getting  the  better.  And,  if  we 
actually  mistake  the  foe,  we  should  criticise  when  we 
should  praise,  and  think  that  all  is  a  defeat,  when 
every  blow  is  telling.  In  all  undertakings  we  must 
ascertain  the  end  proposed,  before  we  can  predicate 


235 

their  success  or  failure ;  and,  therefore,  before  we  so 
freely  speak  against  the  state  of  Catholic  countries, 
and  reflect  upon  the  Church  herself  in  consequence, 
we  must  have  a  clear  view  what  it  was  the  Church 
has  proposed  to  do  with  them  and  for  them.  We 
have,  indeed,  a  right  to  blame  and  dissent  from  the 
end  which  she  sets  before  her;  we  may  quarrel  with 
the  mission  she  professes  to  have  received  from 
above ;  we  may  dispense  with  Scripture,  Fathers, 
and  the  continuous  tradition  of  1800  years.  That 
is  another  matter ;  then,  at  least,  we  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  theological  movement  which  has 
given  occasion  to  these  Lectures ;  then  we  are  not 
in  the  way  to  join  the  Catholic  Church  ;  we  must  be 
met  on  our  own  ground  :  but  I  am  speaking  to  those 
who  go  a  great  way  with  me ;  who  admit  my  prin- 
ciples, who  almost  admit  my  conclusion  ;  who  are  all 
but  ready  to  submit  to  the  Church,  but  who  are 
frightened  by  the  present  state  of  Catholic  coun- 
tries ; — to  such  I  say,  Judge  of  her  fruit  by  her 
principles  and  her  object,  which  you  yourselves  also 
admit;  not  by  those  of  her  enemies,  which  you 
renounce. 

The  world  believes  in  the  world's  ends  as  the 
greatest  of  goods  ;  it  wishes  society  to  be  governed 
simply  and  entirely  for  the  sake  of  this  world. 
Provided  it  could  gain  one  little  islet  in  the  main, 
one  foot  upon  the  coast,  if  it  could  cheapen  tea  by 
sixpence  a  pound,  or  make  its  flag  respected  among 


236 

the  Esquimaux  or  Otaheitans,  at  the  cost  of  a  hun- 
dred lives  and  a  hundred  souls,  it  would  think  it  a 
very  good  bargain.  What  does  it  know  of  hell  ?  it 
disbelieves  it ;  it  spits  upon,  it  abominates,  it  curses, 
its  very  name  and  notion.  Next,  as  to  the  devil,  it 
does  not  believe  in  him  either.  We  next  come  to 
the  flesh,  and  it  is  free  to  confess  that  it  does  not 
think  there  is  any  great  harm  in  following  the  in- 
stincts of  that  nature  which,  perhaps  it  goes  on  to 
say,  God  has  given.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  ? 
who  ever  heard  of  the  world  fighting  with  the  flesh 
and  the  devil?  Well,  then,  what  is  its  notion  of 
evil  ?  Evil,  says  the  world,  is  whatever  is  an  offence 
to  me,  whatever  obscures  my  majesty,  whatever 
disturbs  my  peace.  Order,  peace,  tranquillity, 
popular  contentment,  plenty,  prosperity,  advance  in 
arts  and  sciences,  literature,  refinement,  splendor, 
this  is  my  millennium,  or  rather  my  elysium,  my 
swerga ;  I  acknowledge  no  whole,  no  individuality, 
but  my  own ;  the  units  which  compose  me  are  but 
parts  of  me  ;  they  have  no  perfection  in  themselves, 
no  end  but  in  me ;  in  my  glory  is  their  bliss,  and  in 
the  hidings  of  my  countenance  they  come  to  nought. 
Such  is  the  philosophy  and  practice  of  the 
world; — now  the  Church  looks  and  moves  in  a 
simply  opposite  direction.  It  contemplates,  not  the 
whole,  but  the  parts  ;  not  a  nation,  but  the  men  who 
form  it ;  not  society  in  the  first  place,  but  in  the 
second  place,  and  in  the  first  place  individuals ;  it 


23? 

looks,  beyond  the  outward  act,  on  and  into  the 
thought,  the  motive,  the  intention,  and  the  will;  it 
looks  beyond  the  world,  and  detects  and  moves 
against  the  devil,  who  is  sitting  in  ambush  behind  it. 
It  has,  then,  a  foe^in  view,  nay,  it  has  a  battle  field, 
to  which  the  world  is  blind ;  its  proper  battle  field  is 
the  heart  of  the  individual,  and  its  true  foe  is  Satan* 
My  dear  brethren,  do  not  think  I  am  declaiming, 
or  translating  the  pages  of  some  primitive  homily ; — 
as  I  have  already  said,  I  bear  my  own  testimony  to 
what  has  been  brought  home  to  me  so  closely  and 
vividly  since  I  have  been  a  Catholic ;  viz.,  that  that 
mighty  world-wide  Church,  like  her  Divine  Author, 
regards,  consults,  labors  for  the  individual  soul ;  she 
looks  at  the  souls  for  whom  Christ  died,  and  who  are 
made  over  to  her,  and  her  one  object,  for  which 
everything  is  sacrificed, — appearances,  reputation, 
worldly  triumph, — is  to  acquit  herself  well  of  this 
most  awful  responsibility  Her  one  duty  is  to  bring 
forward  the  elect  to  salvation ; — to  take  offences  out 
of  their  path,  to  warn  them  of  sin,  to  rescue  them 
from  evil,  to  convert  them,  to  teach  them,  to  feed 
them,  to  protect  them,  and  to  perfect  them.  0  most 
tender  loving  Mother,  ill-judged  by  the  world,  which 
thinks  she  is,  like  itself,  always  minding  the  main 
chance;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  her  keen  view  of 
things  spiritual,  and  her  love  for  the  soul,  which 
hampers  her  in  her  negotiations  and  her  measures, 
on  this  hard  cold  earth,  which  is  her  place   of  so- 


238 

journing !  How  easy  would  her  course  be,  at  least 
for  a  while,  could  she  give  up  this  or  that  point  of 
faith,  or  connive  at  some  innovation  or  irregularity 
in  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments  !  How 
much  would  Gregory  have  gained  from  Russia, 
could  he  have  abandoned  the  United  Greeks !  how 
secure  had  Pius  been  upon  his  throne,  could  he  have 
allowed  himself  to  fire  on  his  people ! 

No,  my  dear  brethren,  it  is  this  supernatural  sight 
and  supernatural  aim,  which  is  folly  and  feebleness 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  would  be  failure,  but 
for  the  Providence  of  God.  The  Church  overlooks 
everything  in  comparison  of  the  immortal  soul. 
Good  and  evil  to  her  are  not  lights  and  shades 
passing  over  the  surface  of  society,  but  living  powers, 
springing  from  the  depths  of  the  heart.  Actions 
are  not  mere  outward  deeds  and  words,  committed 
by  hand  or  tongue,  and  manifested  in  effects  over  a 
range  of  influence  wider  or  narrower,  as  the  case 
may  be  ;  but  they  are  the  thoughts,  the  desires,  the 
purposes,  of  the  solitary  Spirit.  She  knows  nothing 
of  space  or  time,  except  as  secondary  to  will;  she 
knows  no  evil  but  sin,  and  sin  is  a  something  per- 
sonal, conscious,  voluntary ;  she  knows  no  good  but 
grace,  and  grace  again  is  something  personal,  private, 
special,  lodged  in  the  soul  of  the  individual.  She 
has  one  and  one  only  aim, — to  purify  the  heart ;  she 
recollects  who  it  is  who  has  turned  our  thoughts 
from  the  external  crime  to  the  inward  imagination ; 


239 

who  said,  that  "  unless  our  justice  abounded  more 
than  that  of  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  we  should  not 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  ;"  and  that  "  out 
of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adul- 
teries, fornications,  thefts,  false  testimonies,  blas- 
phemies. These  are  the  things  that  defile  a  man." 
Now  I  would  have  you  take  up  the  sermons  of  any 
preacher,  or  any  writer  on  moral  theology,  who  has 
a  name  among  Catholics,  and  see  if  what  I  have 
said  is  not  strictly  fulfilled,  however  little  you  fancy 
so  before  you  make  trial.  Protestants,  I  say,  think 
that  the  Church  aims  at  appearance  and  effect ;  she 
must  be  splendid,  and  majestic,  and  influential;  fine 
services,  music,  lights,  vestments,  and  then  again,  in 
her  dealings  with  others,  courtesy,  smoothness,  cun- 
ning, dexterity,  intrigue,  management, — these,  it 
seems,  are  the  ends  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Well, 
my  brethren,  she  cannot  help  succeeding,  she  cannot 
help  being  stnmg,  she  cannot  help  being  beautiful ; 
it  is  her  gift ;  as  she  moves,  the  many  wonder  and 
adore  ; — "  Et  vera  incessu  patuit  Dea."  It  cannot 
be  otherwise,  certainly;  but  it  is  not  her  aim;  she 
goes  forth  on  the  one  errand,  as  I  have  said,  of 
healing  the  diseases  of  the  soul.  Look,  I  say,  into 
any  book  of  moral  theology  you  will ;  there  is  much 
there  which  may  startle  you ;  you  will  find  principles 
hard  to  digest;  explanations  which  seem  to  you 
subtle;  details  which  distress  you;  you  will  find 
abundance  of  what  will  make  excellent  matter  of 


240 

attack  at  Exeter  Hall ;  but  you  will  find  from  first 
to  last  this  one  idea, — nay,  that  very  matter  of  attack 
is  occasioned  by  her  keeping  it  in  view ;  she  would 
be  saved  the  odium,  she  would  not  have  thus  bared 
her  side  to  the  sword,  but  for  her  fidelity  to  it ; — the 
one  idea  that  sin  is  the  enemy  of  the  soul ;  and  sin 
especially  consists,  not  in  overt  acts,  but  in  the 
thoughts  of  the  heart. 

This,  then,  is  the  point  I  insist  upon,  in  answer  to 
the  objection  which  you  have  to-day  urged  against 
me.  The  Church  aims,  not  at  making  a  show,  but 
at  doing  a  work.  She  regards  this  world,  and  all 
that  is  in  it,  as  a  mere  shade,  as  dust  and  ashes, 
compared  with  the  value  of  one  single  soul.  She 
holds  that,  unless  she  can,  in  her  own  way,  do  good 
to  souls,  it  is  no  use  her  doing  anything ;  she  holds 
that  it  were  better  for  sun  and  moon  to  drop  from 
heaven,  for  the  earth  to  fail,  and  for  all  the  many 
millions  who  are  upon  it  to  die  of  starvation  in  ex- 
tremest  agony,  as  far  as  temporal  affliction  goes, 
than  that  one  soul,  I  will  not  say,  should  be  lost, 
but  should  commit  one  single  venial  sin,  should  tell 
one  wilful  untruth,  though  it  harmed  no  one,  or  steal 
one  poor  farthing  without  excuse.  She  considers 
the  action  of  this  world  and  the  action  of  the  soul 
simply  incommensurate,  viewed  in  their  respective 
spheres ;  she  would  rather  save  the  soul  of  one  single 
wild  bandit  of  Calabria,  or  whining  beggar  of  Paler- 
mo, than  draw  a  hundred  lines  of  railroad  through 


241 

tlie  length  of  Italy,  or  carry  out  a  sanitary  reform, 
in  its  fullest  details,  in  every  city  of  Sicily,  except 
so  far  as  these  great  national  works  tended  to  some 
spiritual  good  beyond  them. 

Such  is  the  Church,  0  ye  men  of  the  world,  and 
now  you  know  her.  Such  she  is,  such  she  will  be, 
and  though  she  aims  at  your  good,  it  is  in  her  own 
way, — and  if  you  oppose  her,  she  defies  you.  She 
has  her  mission,  and  do  it  she  will,  whether  she  be 
in  rags,  or  in  fine  liuen  ;  whether  with  awkward  or 
with  refined  carriage ;  whether  by  means  of  uncul- 
tivated intellects,  or  with  the  grace  of  accomplish- 
ments. Not  that,  in  fact,  she  is  not  the  source  of 
numberless  temporal  and  moral  blessings  to  you 
also ;  the  history  of  ages  testifies  it ;  but  she  makes 
no  promises;  she  is  sent  to  seek  the  lost; — that  is 
her  first  object,  and  she  will  fulfil  it,  whatever  comes 
of  it. 

And  now  in  saying  this,  I  think  I  have  gone  a 
great  way  towards  suggesting  one  main  solution  of 
the  difficulty  which  I  proposed  to  consider.  The 
question  was  this : — How  is  it,  that  at  this  time 
Catholic  countries  happen  to  be  behind  Protestants 
in  civilization  ?  In  answer,  I  do  not  determine  how 
far  the  fact  is  so,  or  what  explanation  there  may  be 
of  the  appearance  of  it ;  but  any  how  the  fact  is 
surely  no  objection  to  Catholicism,  unless  Catholicism 
has  professed,  or  ought  to  have  professed,  directly  to 
promote  mere  civilization  ; — on  the  other  hand,  it 
11 


242 

has  a  work  of  its  own,  and  this  work,  I  have  said  or 
implied,  is,  first,  different  from  that  of  the  world ; 
next,  difficult  of  attainment,  compared  with  that  of 
the  world ;  and  lastly,  secret  from  the  world  in  its 
parts  and  consequences.  If,  then,  Spain  or  Italy  be 
deficient  in  secular  progress,  if  the  national  mind  in 
those  countries  be  but  partially  formed,  if  it  be 
unable  to  develope  into  civil  institutions,  if  it  have 
no  moral  instinct  of  deference  to  a  policeman,  if  the 
national  finances  be  in  disorder,  if  the  people  be 
excitable,  and  open  to  deception  from  political  pre- 
tenders, if  it  know  little  or  nothing  of  arts,  sciences, 
and  literature ; — I  repeat  I  do  not  admit  all  this, 
except  hypothetically ;  I  think  it  an  exaggeration ; — 
then  all  I  can  say,  is,  that  it  is  not  wonderful  that 
civil  institutions,  which  profess  these  objects,  should 
succeed  better  than  the  Church,  which  does  not. 
Not  till  the  State  is  blamed  for  not  making  saints, 
may  it  fairly  be  laid  to  the  fault  of  the  Church  that 
she  cannot  invent  a  steam-engine  or  construct  a 
tarhT.  It  is  in  truth  merely  because  she  has  often 
done  so  much  more  than  she  professes,  it  is  really  in 
consequence  of  her  very  exuberance  of  benefit  to 
the  world,  that  the  world  is  disappointed  that  she 
does  not  display  that  exuberance  always, — like  some 
hangers-on  of  the  great,  who  come  at  length  to  think 
they  have  a  claim  on  their  bounty. 

Now  let  me  try  to  bring  out  what  I  mean  more  in 
detail;  and,  in  doing  so,  I  hope  to  be  pardoned,  my 


243 

brethren,  if  my  language  be  now  and  then  of  a  more 
directly  religious  cast  than  I  willingly  would  admit 
into  disquisitions  such  as  the  present.  In  religious 
language,  then,  the  one  object  of  the  Church,  to 
which  every  other  object  is  second,  is  that  of  recon- 
ciling the  soul  to  God.  She  cannot  disguise  from 
herself,  that,  with  whatever  advantages  her  children 
commence  their  course,  in  spite  of  their  baptism,  in 
spite  of  their  most  careful  education  and  training, 
still  the  great  multitoide  of  them  require  her  present 
and  continual  succor  to  keep  them  or  rescue  them 
from  a  state  of  mortal  sin.  Taking  human  nature 
as  it  is,  she  knows  well,  that,  left  to  themselves,  they 
would  relapse  into  the  state  of  those  who  are  not 
Catholics,  whatever  latent  principle  of  truth  and 
goodness  might  remain  in  them,  and  whatever  con- 
sequent hope  of  a  future  revival.  They  may  be  full 
of  ability  and  energy,  they  may  be  men  of  genius^ 
men  of  literature  and  taste,  poets  and  painters, 
musicians  and  architects ;  they  may  be  statesmen  or 
soldiers ;  they  may  be  in  professions  or  in  trade  ; 
they  may  be  skilled  in  the  mechanical  arts ;  they 
may  be  a  hard-working,  money-making  community ; 
they  may  have  great  political  influence ;  they  may 
pour  out  a  flood  of  population  on  every  side ;  they 
may  have  a  talent  for  colonization ;  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  may  be  members  of  a  country  once 
glorious,  whose  day  is  passed ;  where  luxury,  or 
civil  discord,  or  want  of  mental  force,  or  other  more 


244 

subtle  cause,  is  the  insuperable  bar  in  the  way  ef  any 
national  demonstration  ;  or  they  may  be  half  re- 
claimed from  barbarism ;  or  they  may  be  a  simple 
rural  population  ;  they  may  be  in  the  cold  north,  or 
the  beautiful  south ;  but,  whatever  and  wherever 
they  are,  the  Church  knows  well,  that  those  vast 
masses  of  population,  as  viewed  in  the  individual 
units  of  which  they  are  composed,  are  in  a  state  of 
continual  lapse  from  the  Centre  of  sanctity  and 
love,  ever  falling  under  His  displeasure,  and  tending 
to  a  state  ef  habitual  alienation  from  Him.  Her 
one  work  towards  these  many  millions,  is,  year  after 
year,  day  after  day,  to  be  raising  them  out  of  the 
mire,  and  when  they  sink  again  to  raise  them  again, 
and  so  to  keep  them  afloat,  as  she  best  may,  on  the 
surface  of  that  stream,  which  is  carrying  them  down 
to  eternity.  Of  course,  through  G-od's  mercy,  there 
are  numbers  who  are  exceptions  to  this  statement, 
who  are  living  in  obedience  and  peace,  or  going  on 
to  perfection ;  but  the  word  of  Christ,  "  Many  are 
called,  few  are  chosen,"  is  fulfilled  in  any  extensive 
field  of  operation  which  the  Church  is  called  to  su- 
perintend. Her  one  object,  through  her  ten  thou- 
sand organs,  by  preachers  and  by  confessors,  by 
parish  priests  and  by  religious  communities,  in  mis- 
sions and  in  retreats,  at  Christmas  and  at  Easter,  by 
fasts  and  by  feasts,  by  devotions  and  by  indulgences, 
is  this  unwearied  ever-patient  reconciliation  of  the 
soul   fco  <  ;<»'l    and   obliteration  of  sin.     Thus,  in  the 


245 

words  of  Scripture,  most  emphatically,  she  knows 
nought  else,  but  "  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified." 
It  is  her  ordinary  toil,  into  which  her  other  labors 
resolve  themselves,  or  towards  which  they  are  di- 
rected. Does  she  send  out  her  missionaries  ?  Does 
she  summon  her  doctors?  Does  she  enlarge  or 
diversify  her  worship  ?  does  she  multiply  her  reli- 
gious bodies?  It  is  all  to  gain  souls  to  Christ. 
And  if  she  encourages  other  enterprises,  studies,  or 
pursuits,  as  she  does,  or  the  arts  of  civilization 
generally,  it  is  either  from  their  indirect  bearing 
upon  her  great  object,  or  from  the  spontaneous 
energy  which  great  ideas  exert,  and  the  irresistible 
influence  which  they  exercise,  in  matters  and  in 
provinces  not  really  their  own. 

Moreover,  as  sins  are  of  unequal  gravity  in  God's 
judgment,  though  all  of  whatever  kind  are  offensive 
to  Him,  and  incur  their  measure  of  punishment,  the 
Church's  great  object  is  to  discriminate  between  sin 
and  sin,  and  to  secure  in  individuals  that  renuncia- 
tion of  evil,  which  is  implied  in  the  idea  of  a  sub- 
stantial and  unfeigned  conversion.  She  has  no 
warrant,  and  she  has  no  encouragement,  to  enforce 
upon  men  in  general  more  than  those  habits  of  virtue, 
the  absence  of  which  would  be  tantamount  to  their 
separation  from  God;  and  she  thinks  she  has  done 
a  great  deal,  and  exults  in  her  success,  does  she 
proceed  so  far;  and  she  bears  as  she  may,  what  re- 
mains still  to  be  done,  in  the  conviction  that,  did  she 


246 

attempt  more,  she  might  lose  all.  There  are  sins 
which  are  simply  imcompatible  with  contrition  and 
absolution  under  any  circumstances ;  there  are  others 
which  are  disorders  and  disfigurements  of  the  soul. 
She  exhorts  men  against  the  second,  she  directs  her 
efforts  against  the  first. 

Now  here  at  once  the  Church  and  the  world  part 
company ;  for  the  world  too,  as  is  necessary,  has  its 
scale  of  offences  as  well  as  the  Church ;  but,  refer- 
ring them  to  a  contrary  object,  it  classifies  them  on 
quite  a  contrary  principle ;  so  that  what  is  heinous 
in  the  world  may  be  regarded  patiently  by  the 
Church,  and  what  is  horrible  and  ruinous  in  the 
judgment  of  the  Church  may  fail  to  exclude  a  man 
from  the  best  society  of  the  world.  And,  this  being 
so,  when  the  world  contemplates  the  training  of  the 
Church  and  its  results,  then,  judging  by  its  own 
standard,  it  cannot  avoid,  from  the  nature  of  the 
case,  if  for  no  other  reason,  thinking  very  contemp- 
tuously of  fruits,  which  are  so  different  from  those 
which  it  makes  the  standard  and  token  of  moral 
excellence 

I  may  say  the  Church  aims  at  three  special  vir- 
tues, which  reconcile  and  unite  the  soul  to  its 
Maker; — faith,  purity,  and  charity; — for  two  of 
which  the  world  cares  little  or  nothing.  The  world, 
on  the  other  hand,  puts  in  the  first  place,  in  some 
states  of  society,  certain  heroic  qualities ;  in  others, 
certain  virtues  of  a  political  or  mercantile  character. 


247 

In  ruder  ages,  it  is  personal  courage,  strength  of 
purpose,  magnanimity ;  in  more  civilized,  honesty, 
fairness,  honor,  truth,  and  benevolence  : — virtues,  all 
of  which,  of  course,  the  teaching  of  the  Church 
comprehends,  all  of  which  she  expects  in  their  de- 
gree in  all  her  consistent  children,  and  all  of  which 
she  exacts  in  their  fulness  in  her  saints  :  but  which, 
after  all,  most  beautiful  as  they  are,  are  really  the 
fruit  of  nature  as  well  as  of  grace ;  which  do  not 
necessarily  imply  grace  at  all :  which  do  not  reach 
so  far  as  sanctity,  or  unite  the  soul  by  any  super- 
natural process  to  the  source  of  supernatural  per- 
fection and  supernatural  blessedness.  Again,  as  t 
have  already  said,  the  Church  contemplates  virtue 
and  vice  in  their  first  elements,  as  conceived  and 
existing  in  thought,  desire,  and  will,  and  holds  that 
the  one  or  the  other  may  be  as  complete  and  mature, 
without  passing  forth  from  the  home  of  the  secret 
heart,  as  if  it  had  ranged  forth  in  profession  and  in 
deed  all  over  the  earth.  Thus,  in  a  certain  sense, 
she  ignores  bodies  politic,  and  society,  and  temporal 
interests :  whereas  the  world  talks  of  religion  being 
a  matter  of  private  concern,  too  personal,  too  sacred 
for  it  to  have  any  opinion  about  it :  it  praises 
public  men,  if  they  are  useful  to  itself,  but  simply 
ridicules  inquiry  into  their  motives,  thinks  it  imper- 
tinent in  others  to  attempt  it,  and  out  of  taste  in 
themselves  to  invite  it.  All  public  men  it  thinks 
pretty  much  the  same  at  bottom ;  but  what  matter 


248 

to  it,  if  they  do  its  work  ?  It  offers  high  pay,  and 
it  expects  faithful  service;  but  as  to  its  agents, 
overseers,  men  of  business,  operatives,  journeymen, 
figure -servants,  and  laborers,  what  they  are  per- 
sonally, what  their  principles  and  aims,  what  their 
creed,  what  their  conversation  is,  where  they  live, 
how  they  spend  their  leisure  time,  whither  they  are 
going,  how  they  die, — I  am  stating  a  simple  matter 
of  fact,  I  am  not  here  praising  or  blaming,  I  am  but 
contrasting, — I  say,  all  questions  implying  the  ex- 
istence of  the  soul,  are  as  much  beyond  the  circuit 
of  the  world's  imagination,  as  they  are  intimately 
1  and  primarily  present  to  the  apprehension  of  the 
Church. 

The  Church,  then,  considers  the  momentary, 
fleeting  act  of  the  will,  in  the  three  subject  matters 
I  have  mentioned,  to  be  capable  of  guiltiness  of  the 
deadliest  character,  or  of  the  most  efficacious  and 
triumphant  merit.  She  holds  that  a  soul  laden  with 
the  most  enormous  offence  in  deed  as  well  as  thought, 
a  savage  tyrant,  who  delighted  in  cruelty,  an  habitual 
adulterer,  a  murderer,  a  blasphemer,  who  has  scoffed 
at  religion  through  a  long  life,  and  corrupted  every 
soul  which  he  could  bring  within  his  influence,  who 
has  loathed  the  Sacred  Name,  and  cursed  his 
Saviour, — that  such  a  man  can,  in  a  moment,  by  one 
thought  of  the  heart,  by  one  true  act  of  contrition, 
reconcile  himself  to  Almighty  God,  (through  His 
secret  grace,)  without  Sacrament,  without  Priest, 


249 

and  be  as  clean,  and  fair,  and  lovely,  as  if  he  had 
never  sinned.  Again,  she  considers  that  in  a  ~  o- 
ment  also,  with  eyes  shut  and  arms  folded,  a  man 
may  cut  himself  off  from  the  Almighty  by  a  deli- 
berate act  of  the  will,  and  cast  himself  into  per- 
dition. With  the  world  it  is  the  reverse  ;  a  member 
of  society  may  go  as  near  the  line  of  evil,  as  the 
world  draws  it,  as  he  will ;  but,  till  he  has  passed  it, 
he  is  safe.  Again,  when  he  has  once  transgressed 
it,  recovery  is  impossible ;  let  honor  of  man  or 
woman  be  sullied,  and  to  restore  its  splendor  is 
simply  to  undo  the  past;  it  is  impossible. 

Such  being  the  extreme  difference  between  the 
Church  and  the  world,  both  as  to  the  measure  and 
the  scale  of  moral  good  and  evil,  we  may  be  pre- 
pared for  those  vast  differences  in  matters  of  detail, 
whic*h  I  hardly  like  to  mention,  lest  they  should  be 
out  of  keeping  with  the  gravity  of  the  subject,  as 
contemplated  in  its  broad  principle.  For  instance, 
the  Church  pronounces  the  momentary  wish,  if  con- 
scious and  deliberate,  that  another  should  meet  with 
his  death,  or  suffer  any  grievous  misfortune,  as  a 
blacker  sin  than  a  passionate,  unpremeditated  at- 
tempt on  the  life  of  the  Sovereign  Sh^  considers 
consent,  though  as  quick  as  thought,  to  a  single 
unchaste  wish  as  indefinitely  more  heinous  than  any 
lie  which  can  possibly  be  fancied,  that  is,  when 
viewed,  of  course,  in  itself,  and  apart  from  its 
causes,  motives,  and  consequences.  Take  a  mere 
11* 


250 

beggar-woman,  lazy,  ragged,  filthy,  and  not  over 
scrupulous  ot  truth, — (I  do  not  say  she  has  arrived 
at  perfection,) — but  if  she  is  chaste,  and  sober,  and 
cheerful,  and  goes  to  her  religious  duties,  (and  I  am 
supposing  not  at  all  an  impossible  case,)  she  will, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Church,  have  a  prospect  of  heaven, 
quite  closed  and  refused  to  the  State's  pattern-man, 
the  just,  the  upright,  the  generous,  the  honorable, 
the  conscientious,  if  he  be  all  this,  not  from  a  super- 
natural power, — (I  do  not  determine  whether  this  is 
likely  to  be  the  fact,  but  I  am  contrasting  views  and 
principles,) — not  from  a  supernatural  power,  but 
from  mere  natural  virtue.  Polished  delicate -minded 
ladies,  with  little  of  temptation  around  them,  and 
no  self-denial  to  practise,  in  spite  of  their  refinement 
and  taste,  if  they  be  nothing  more,  are  objects  of 
less  interest  to  her  than  many  a  poor  outcast  who 
sins,  repents,  and  is  with  difficulty  kept  just  within 
the  territory  of  grace.  Again  excess  in  drinking 
is  one  of  the  world's  most  disgraceful  offences ; 
odious  it  ever  is  in  the  eyes  of  the  Church,  but  if  it 
does  not  proceed  to  the  loss  of  reason,  she  thinks  it 
a  far  less  sin  than  oue  deliberate  act  of  detraction, 
though  the  matter  of  it  be  truth.  And  again,  not 
unfrequently  does  a  Priest  hear  a  confession  of 
thefts,  which  he  knows  would  sentence  the  penitent 
to  transportation,  if  brought  into  a  court  of  justice, 
but  which  he  knows  too,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Church,  might  be  pardoned  on  the  man's  private 


251 

contrition,  without  any  confession  at  all.  Once 
more,  the  State  has  the  guardianship  of  property, 
as  the  Church  is  the  guardian  of  the  faith ;  in  the 
middle  ages  the  Church  put  to  death  for  heresy,  and 
even  in  our  own  times  the  State  has  put  to  death 
for  forgery,  nay,  I  suppose,  for  sheep -stealing. 

Now,  my  brethren,  you  may  think  it  impolitic  in 
me  thus  candidly  to  state  what  may  be  so  strange 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world ;  but  not  so,  my  dear 
brethren,  just  the  contrary.  The  world  already 
knows  quite  enough  of  our  difference  of  judgment 
from  it  on  the  whole ;  it  knows  that  difference  also 
in  its  results ;  it  does  not  know  that  it  is  based  on 
principle ;  it  taunts  the  Church  with  that  difference, 
as  if  nothing  could  be  said  for  her,  as  if  it  were  not, 
as  it  is,  a  mere  question  of  a  balance  of  evils,  as  if 
the  Church  had  nothing  to  show  for  herself,  were 
simply  ashamed  of  her  evident  helplessness,  and 
pleaded  guilty  to  the  charge  of  her  inferiority  to  the 
world  in  the  moral  effects  of  her  teaching.  The 
world  points  to  the  children  of  the  Church,  and  asks 
if  she  acknowledges  them  as  her  own.  It  dreams 
not  that  the  contrast  arises  out  of  a  difference  of 
principle,  and  that  she  claims  to  recognise  a  principle 
higher  than  the  world's.  Principle  is  always  re- 
spectable ;  even  a  bad  man  is  more  respected,  though 
he  may  be  more  hated,  if  he  owns  and  justifies  his 
actions,  than  if  he  is  wicked  by  accident ;  now  the 
Church  professes  to  judge  after  the  judgment  of  the 


252 

Almighty ;  and  it  cannot  be  imprudent  or  impolitical 
to  bring  this  out  clearly  and  boldly.  His  judgment 
is  not  as  man's  :  "  I  judge  not  according  to  the  look 
of  man,"  He  says ;  "  for  man  seeth  those  things 
which  appear,  but  the  Lord  beholdeth  the  heart." 
The  Church  aims  at  realities,  the  world  at  decencies  ; 
she  dispenses  with  a  complete  work,  so  she  can  but 
make  a  thorough  one.  Provided  she  can  do  for  the 
soul  what  is  necessary,  if  she  can  but  pull  the  brands 
out  of  the  burning,  if  she  can  but  extract  the  poison- 
ous root  which  is  the  death  of  the  soul,  and  expel 
the  disease,  she  is  content,  though  she  leaves  in  it 
secondary  maladies,  little  as  she  sympathizes  with 
them. 

Now,  were  it  to  my  present  purpose  to  attack  the 
principles  and  proceedings  of  the  world,  of  course  it 
would  be  obvious  for  me  to  retort  upon  the  cold, 
cruel,  selfish  system,  which  this  supreme  worship  of 
comfort,  decency,  and  social  order,  necessarily  intro- 
duces ;  to  show  you  how  the  many  are  sacrificed  to 
the  few,  the  poor  to  the  wealthy,  how  an  oligarchical 
monopoly  of  enjoyment  is  established  far  and  wide, 
and  the  claims  of  want,  and  pain,  and  sorrow,  and 
affliction,  and  guilt,  and  misery,  are  practically  for- 
gotten. But  I  will  not  have  recourse  to  the  com- 
mon-places of  controversy,  when  I  am  on  the 
defensive.  All  I  would  say  to  the  world  is, — Keep 
your  theories  to  yourself,  do  not  inflict  them  upon 
the   sons   of   Adam   everywhere ;  do   not  measure 


253 

heaven  and  earth  by  views  which  are  in  a  great  de- 
gree insular,  and  never  can  be  philosophical  and 
catholic.  You  do  your  work  perhaps  in  a  more 
business-like  way,  compared  with  ourselves,  but  we 
are  immeasurably  more  tender,  and  gentle,  and 
angelic.  We  come  to  poor  human  nature  as  the 
angels  of  Grod,  and  you  as  policemen.  Look  at  your 
poor-houses,  hospitals,  lunatic  asylums,  and  prisons ; 
how  perfect  are  their  externals  !  what  skill  and  in- 
genuity appear  in  their  structure,  economy,  and 
administration !  they  are  as  decent  and  bright  and 
calm,  as  what  our  Lord  seems  to  name  them, — dead 
men's  sepulchres.  Yes !  they  have  all  the  world 
can  give,  all  but  life ;  all  but  a  heart.  Yes !  you 
can  hammer  up  a  coffin,  you  can  plaster  a  tomb ; 
you  are  nature's  undertakers  ;  you  cannot  build  it  a 
home.  You  cannot  feed  it,  or  heal  it ;  it  lies,  like 
Lazarus,  at  your  gate,  full  of  sores.  You  see  it 
gasping  and  panting  with  privations  and  penalties ; 
and  you  sing  to  it,  you  dance  to  it,  you  show  it  your 
picture-books,  you  let  off  your  fireworks,  you  open 
your  menageries.  Shallow  philosophers!  is  this 
mode  of  going  on  so  winning  and  persuasive,  that 
we  should  imitate  it  ? 

Look  at  your  conduct  towards  criminals,  and 
honestly  say,  whether  you  expect  a  power,  which 
claims  to  be  divine,  to  turn  copyist  of  you  ?  You 
have  the  power  of  life  and  death  committed  to  you 
by  heaven ;  and  some  wretched  being  is  sentenced 


254 

to  fall  under  it  for  some  deed  of  treachery  and 
blood.  It  is  a  righteous  sentence,  re-echoed  by  a 
whole  people;  and  you  have  a  feeling  that  the 
criminal  himself  ought  to  concur  in  it,  and  sentence 
himself.  There  is  an  universal  feeling  that  he  ought 
to  resign  himself  to  your  act,  and,  as  it  were,  take 
part  in  it ;  in  other  words,  there  is  a  sort  of  instinct 
among  you  that  he  should  make  confession,  and  you 
are  not  content  without  his  doing  so.  So  far  the 
Church  goes  along  with  you ;  so  far,  but  no  further. 
To  whom  is  he  to  confess  ?  To  me,  says  the  Priest, 
for  he  has  injured  the  Almighty.  To  me,  says  the 
world,  for  he  has  injured  me.  Forgetting  that  the 
power  to  sentence  is  simply  from  God,  and  that  the 
sentence,  if  just,  is  God's  sentence,  the  world  is 
peremptory  that  no  confession  shall  be  made  by  him 
to  God,  without  its  being  in  the  secret.  It  is  right, 
doubtless,  that  he  should  make  reparation  to  man  as 
well  as  to  God ;  but  it  is  not  right  that  the  world 
should  insist  on  having  precedence  of  its  Maker,  or 
should  prescribe  that  its  Maker  should  have  no 
secrets  apart  from  itself,  or  that  no  divine  ministra- 
tion should  relieve  a  laden  breast  without  its  med- 
dling in  the  act.  Yet  the  world  rules  it,  that  what- 
ever is  said  to  a  minister  of  religion  in  religious 
confidence,  is  its  own  property.  It  considers  a 
clergyman  who  attends  upon  the  culprit  to  be  its 
own  servant,  and  by  its  boards  of  magistrates,  and 
by  its  literary  organs,  it  insists  on  his  revealing  to 


255 

its  judgment- seat  what  was  uttered  before  the 
judgment-seat  of  God.  What  wonder,  then,  if  such 
forlorn  wretches,  when  thus  plainly  told  that  the 
world  is  their  only  god,  and  knowing  that  they  are 
quitting  the  presence  of  that  high  potentate  for  ever, 
steel  themselves  with  obduracy,  encounter  it  with 
defiance,  baffle  its  curiosity,  and  inflict  on  its  im- 
patience such  poor  revenge  as  is  in  its  power? 
They  come  forth  into  the  light,  and  look  up  into  the 
face  of  day  for  the  last  time,  and,  amid  the  jests 
and  blasphemies  of  myriads,  they  pass  from  a  world 
which  they  hate  into  a  world  which  they  deny. 
Small  mercies,  indeed,  has  this  world  shown  them, 
and  they  make  no  trial  of  the  mercies  of  another ! 
Oh,  how  contrary  is  the  look,  the  bearing  of  the 
Catholic  Church  to  these  poor  outcasts  of  mankind  ! 
There  was  a  time,  when  one  who  denied  his  Lord, 
was  brought  to  repentance  by  a  glance ;  and  such  is 
the  method  which  His  Church  teaches  to  those 
nations  who  acknowledge  her  authority  and  her 
sway.  The  civil  magistrate,  stern  of  necessity,  in 
his  function,  and  inexorable  in  his  resolve,  at  her 
bidding,  gladly  puts  on  a  paternal  countenance,  and 
takes  on  him  an  office  of  mercy  towards  the  victim 
of  his  wrath.  He  infuses  the  ministry  of  life  into 
the  ministry  of  death ;  he  afflicts  the  body  for  the 
good  of  the  soul,  and  converts  the  penalty  of  human 
law  into  an  instrument  of  everlasting  bliss.  It  is 
good  for  human  beings  to  die  as  infants,  before  they 


256 

have  known  good  or  evil,  if  they  have  but  received 
the  baptism  of  the  Church  ;  but  next  to  these,  who 
are  the  happiest,  who  are  the  safest,  for  whose  de- 
parture have  we  more  cause  to  rejoice,  and  be  thank- 
ful, than  for  theirs,  who,  if  they  live  on,  are  so  likely 
to  relapse  into  old  habits  of  sin,  but  who  are  taken 
out  of  this  miserable  world  in  the  flower  of  their 
contrition,  and  in  the  freshness  of  their  prepara- 
tion;— just  at  the  very  moment  when  they  have 
perfected  themselves  in  good  dispositions,  and  from 
their  heart  have  put  off  sin,  and  have  come  humbly 
for  pardon,  and  have  received  the  grace  of  abso- 
lution, and  have  been  fed  with  the  bread  of  Angels, 
and  thus,  amid  the  prayers  of  all  men,  have  departed 
to  their  Maker  and  their  Judge  ?  I  say  "  the 
prayers  of  all :"  for  oh  the  difference,  in  this  respect, 
in  the  execution  of  the  extreme  sentence  of  the  law, 
between  a  Catholic  State  and  another !  We  have 
all  heard  of  the  scene  of  impiety  and  profaneness 
which  attends  on  the  execution  of  a  criminal  in 
England ;  so  much  so,  that  benevolent  and  thought- 
ful men  are  perplexed  between  the  evil  of  privacy 
and  the  outrages  which  publicity  occasions.  Well, 
England  surpasses  Heme  in  ten  thousand  matters 
of  this  world,  but  never  would  the  Holy  City  tolerate 
an  enormity  which  powerful  England  cannot  hinder. 
An  arch  confraternity  was  instituted  there  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  under  the  invocation 
of  San  Giovanni  Decollato,  the  Holy  Baptist,  who 


257 

lost  his  head  by  a  king's  sentence,  though  an  unjust 
one ;  and  it  exercises  its  pious  offices  towards  con- 
demned criminals  even  now.  When  a  culprit  is  to 
be  executed,  the  night  preceding  the  fatal  day,  two 
priests  of  the  brotherhood,  who  sometimes  happen 
to  be  Bishops  or  persons  of  high  authority  in  the 
city,  remain  with  him  in  prayer,  attend  him  on  the 
scaffold  the  next  morning,  and  assist  him  through 
every  step  of  the  terrible  ceremonial  of  which  he  is 
the  subject.  The  Blessed  Sacrament  is  exposed  in 
all  the  churches  all  over  the  city,  that  the  faithful 
may  assist  a  sinner  about  to  make  a  compulsory 
appearance  before  his  Judge.  The  crowd  about  the 
scaffold  is  occupied  in  but  one  thought,  whether  he 
has  shown  signs  of  contrition.  Various  reports  are 
in  circulation,  that  he  is  obdurate,  that  he  has 
yielded,  that  he  is  obdurate  still.  The  women  cry 
out  that  it  is  impossible ;  Jesus  and  Mary  will  see 
to  it ;  they  will  not  believe  that  it  is  so  ;  they  are 
sure  that  he  will  submit  himself  to  his  God  before 
he  enters  into  His  presence.  However,  it  is  perhaps 
confirmed  that  the  unhappy  man  is  still  wrestling 
with  his  pride;  and  though  he  has  that  illumination 
of  faith  which  a  Catholic  cannot  but  possess,  yet  he 
cannot  bring  himself  to  hate  and  abhor  sins  which, 
except  in  their  awful  consequences,  are,  as  far  as 
their  enjoyment,  gone  from  him  for  ever.  He  cannot 
taste  again  the  pleasure  of  revenge  or  of  forbidden 
indulgence,  yet  he  cannot  get  himself  to  give  it  up, 


258 

though  the  world  is  passing  from  him.  The  excite- 
ment of  the  crowd  is  at  its  height ;  an  hour  passes ; 
the  suspense  is  intolerable,  when  the  news  is  brought 
of  a  change ;  that,  before  the  crucifix,  in  the  solitude 
of  his  cell,  at  length  the,  not  unhappy  any  longer, 
the  happy  criminal  has  subdued  himself;  has  prayed 
with  real  self-abasement ;  has  expressed,  has  felt,  a 
charitable,  a  tender  thought  towards  those  he  has 
hated ;  has  resigned  himself  lovingly  to  his  destiny ; 
has  blessed  the  hand  that  smites  him ;  has  suppli- 
cated pardon ;  has  confessed  with  all  his  heart,  and 
placed  himself  at  the  disposal  of  his  Priest,  to  make 
such  amends  as  he  can  make  in  his  last  hour  to  God 
and  man ;  has  desired  to  submit  here  to  indignity,  to 
pain,  to  which  he  is  not  sentenced;  has  resigned 
himself  to  any  length  of  purgatory  hereafter,  if 
thereby  he  may,  through  God's  mercy,  show  his 
sincerity,  and  his  desire  of  pardon  and  of  gaining 
the  lowest  place  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The 
news  comes;  it  is  communicated  through  the  vast 
multitude  all  at  once ;  and,  I  have  heard  from  those 
who  have  been  present,  never  shall  they  forget  the 
instantaneous  shout  of  joy  which  burst  forth  from 
every  tongue,  and  formed  itself  into  one  concordant 
Ave  of  thanksgiving,  in  acknowledgment  of  the 
grace  vouchsafed  to  one  so  near  eternity. 

It  is  not  wonderful  then  to  find  the  holy  men,  who 
from  time  to  time  have  done  the  pious  office  of  pre- 
paring such  criminals  for  death,  so  confident  of  their 


259 

salvation.  "  So  well  convinced  was  Father  Claver 
of  the  eternal  happiness  of  almost  all  those  whom 
he  assisted,"  says  this  saintly  missionary's  biogra- 
pher, "that,  speaking  once  of  some  persons  who 
had  delivered  a  criminal  into  the  hands  of  justice, 
he  said,  '  God  forgive  them ;  but  they  have  secured 
the  salvation  of  this  man  at  the  probable  risk  of 
their  own.'  Most  of  the  criminals  considered  it  a 
grace  to  die  in  the  hands  of  this  holy  man.  As 
soon  as  he  spake  to  them  the  most  savage  and  in- 
domitable became  gentle  as  lambs  ;  and,  in  place  of 
their  ordinary  imprecations,  nothing  was  heard  but 
sighs,  and  the  sound  of  bloody  disciplines,  which 
they  took  before  leaving  the  prison  for  execution." 
But  I  must  come  to  an  end.  I  do  not  consider, 
my  brethren,  I  have  said  all  that  might  be  said  in 
answer  to  the  difficulty  which  has  come  under  our 
consideration  ;  nor  have  I  proposed  to  do  so.  Such 
an  undertaking  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of 
these  Lectures ;  it  is  an  inquiry  into  facts.  It  is 
enough  if  I  have  suggested  to  you  one  thought 
which  may  most  materially  invalidate  it.  You  tell 
me,  that  the  political  and  civil  state  of  Catholic  coun- 
tries is  below  that  of  Protestant :  I  answer,  that, 
even  though  you  prove  the  fact,  you  have  to  prove 
something  besides,  if  it  is  to  be  an  argument,  vizs 
that  the  standard  of  civil  prosperity  or  political 
aggrandizement  is  the  truest  test  of  grace  and  the 
greatest  measure  of  salvation. 


LECTURE  IX. 


THE   RELIGIOUS   CHARACTER   OF   CATHOLIC    COUNTRIES, 
NO    PREJUDICE    TO   THE   SANCTITY    OF   THE   CHURCH. 

I  considered,  in  the  preceding  Lecture,  the  ob- 
jection brought  in  this  day  against  the  Catholic 
Church,  from  the  state  of  the  countries  which  beloDg 
to  her.  It  is  urged,  that  they  are  so  far  behind  the 
rest  of  the  world  in  the  arts  and  comforts  of  life,  in 
power  of  political  combination,  in  civil  economy, 
and  the  social  virtues,  in  a  word,  in  all  that  tends  to 
make  this  world  pleasant,  and  the  loss  of  it  painful, 
that  their  religion  cannot  come  from  above.  I  an- 
swered, that,  before  the  argument  could  be  made  to 
tell,  it  must  be  proved,  not  only  that  the  fact  was  as 
stated,  (and  I  think  it  should  be  very  closely  ex- 
amined,) but  especially  that  there  is  that  essential 
connexion  in  the  nature  of  things  between  true  re- 
ligion and  temporal  prosperity,  which  the  objection 
took  for  granted.     That  there  is  a  natural  and  ordi- 


261 

nary  connexion  between  them  no  one  would  deny  i 
but  it  is  one  thing  to  say  that  prosperity  ought  to 
follow  from  religion,  quite  another  to  say  that  it 
must  follow  from  it.  Thus,  health,  for  instance, 
may  be  expected  from  a  habit  of  regular  exercise ; 
but  no  one  would  positively  deny  the  fact  that  exer- 
cise had  been  taken  in  a  particular  case,  merely 
because  the  patient  gave  signs  of  an  infirm  or  sickly 
state  of  body.  And,  indeed,  there  may  be  particular 
and  most  wise  reasons  in  the  scheme  of  Divine  Pro- 
vidence, whatever  be  the  legitimate  tendency  of  the 
Catholic  faith,  for  its  being  left,  from  time  to  time, 
without  any  striking  manifestations  of  its  beneficial 
action  upon  the  temporal  interests  of  mankind, 
without  the  influence  of  wealth,  learning,  civil  talent, 
or  political  sagacity ;  nay,  as  in  the  days  of  St. 
Cyprian  and  St.  Augustin,  with  the  actual  reproach 
of  impairing  the  material  resources  and  the  social 
greatness  of  the  nations  which  embrace  it :  viz.,  in 
order  to  remind  the  Church,  and  to  teach  the  world, 
that  she  needs  no  temporal  recommendations  who 
has  a  heavenly  Protector,  but  can  make  her  way  (as 
they  say)  against  wind  and  tide. 

This,  then,  was  the  subject  I  selected  for  my  last 
Lecture,  and  I  said  there  were  three  reasons,  why 
the  world  is  no  fit  judge  of  the  work,  or  the  kind  of 
work,  really  done  by  the  Church  in  any  age  : — first, 
because  the  world's  measure  of  good  and  scope  of 
action  are  so  different  from  those  of  the  Church,  that 


262 

it  judges  as  unfairly  and  as  narrowly  of  the  fruits  of 
Catholicism  and  their  value,  as  a  soldier  might  judge 
of  the  use  and  the  influence  of  literature,  or  rather 
indefinitely  more  so.  The  Church,  though  she  em- 
braces all  conceivable  virtues  in  her  teaching,  and 
every  kind  of  good,  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual,  in 
her  exertions,  does  not  survey  them  from  the  same 
point  of  view,  or  classify  them  in  the  same  order  as 
the  world.  She  makes  secondary,  what  the  world 
considers  indispensable ;  she  places  first  what  the 
world  does  not  even  recognise,  or  undervalues,  or 
dislikes,  or  thinks  impossible ;  and  not  being  able, 
taking  mankind  as  it  is  found,  to  do  everything,  she 
is  often  obliged  to  give  up  altogether  what  she  thinks 
of  but  secondary  moment,  in  a  particular  age,  or  a 
particular  country,  instead  of  effecting  at  all  risks 
that  extirpation  of  social  evils,  which,  in  the  world's 
eyes,  is  so  necessary,  that  it  thinks  nothing  really  is 
done,  till  it  is  secured.  Her  base  of  operations, 
from  the  difficulties  of  the  season  or  period,  is  some- 
times not  broad  enough  to  enable  her  to  advance 
against  crime  as  well  as  against  sin,  and  to  destroy 
barbarism  as  well  as  irreligion.  The  world,  in  con- 
sequence, thinks,  that,  because  she  has  not  done  the 
world's  work,  she  has  not  fulfilled  her  Master's  pur- 
pose ;  and  imputes  to  her  the  enormity  of  having 
put  eternity  before  time. 

And  next,  let  it  be  observed  that  she  has  under- 
taken the  more  difficult  work ;  it  is  difficult  certainly 


263 

to  enlighten  the  savage,  to  make  him  peaceable, 
orderly,  and  self-denying;  to  persuade  him  to  dress 
like  a  European,  to  make  him  prefer  a  feather-bed 
to  the  heather  or  the  cave,  and  to  appreciate  the 
comforts  of  the  fire-side  and  the  tea-table  :  but  it  is 
indefinitely  more  difficult,  even  with  the  supernatural 
powers  given  to  the  Church,  to  make  the  most  re- 
fined, accomplished,  amiable  of  men,  chaste  or 
humble ;  to  bring,  not  only  his  outward  actions,  but 
his  thoughts,  imaginations,  and  aims,  into  conformity 
to  a  law  which  is  naturally  distasteful  to  him.  It  is 
not  wonderful  then,  if  the  Church  does  not  do  so 
much  in  the  Church's  way,  as  the  world  does  in  the 
world's  way.  The  world  has  nature  as  an  ally,  and 
the  Church,  on  the  whole,  has  it  as  an  enemy. 

And  lastly,  as  I  have  implied,  her  best  fruit  is 
necessarily  secret :  she  fights  with  the  heart  of  man ; 
her  perpetual  conflict  is  against  the  pride,  the  im- 
purity, the  covetousness,  the  envy,  the  animosity, 
which  never  gets  so  far  as  to  come  to  light ;  which 
she  succeeds  in  strangling  in  its  birth.  From  the 
nature  of  the  case,  she  ever  will  do  more  in  repres- 
sing evil,  than  in  creating  good ;  moreover,  virtue 
and  sanctity,  even  where  realized,  are  also  in  great 
measure  secret  possessions,  known  only  to  God  and 
good  angels ;  for  these  then  and  other  reasons  the 
power  and  the  triumphs  of  the  Church  must  be  hid 
from  the  world,  unless  the  doors  of  the  Confessional 
could  be  flung  open,  and  its  whispers  carried  abroad 


264 

on  the  voices  of  the  winds.  Nor  indeed  would  this 
be  enough  for  the  due  comparison  of  the  Church 
with  religions  which  aim  at  no  personal  self-govern- 
ment, and  disown  on  principle  examination  of  con- 
science and  confession  of  sin ;  but  for  its  execution 
we  must  wait  for  that  day,  when  the  books  shall  be 
opened  and  the  secrets  of  hearts  shall  be  disclosed. 
For  all  these  reasons  then,  from  the  peculiarity,  and 
the  arduousness,  and  the  secrecy  of  the  mission 
given  to  the  Church,  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  world 
may,  at  particular  periods,  think  very  slightingly  of 
her  influence  on  society,  and  vastly  prefer  its  own 
methods  and  its  own  achievements. 

So  much  I  suggested  towards  the  consideration  of 
a  subject,  to  which  justice  could  not  really  be  done 
except  in  a  very  lengthened  disquisition,  and  by  an 
examination  of  matters  which  lie  beyond  the  range 
of  these  Lectures.  If  then  to-day  I  make  a  second 
remark  upon  it,  I  do  so  with  the  object  I  have  kept 
before  me  all  along,  of  merely  smoothing  the  way 
into  the  Catholic  Church  of  those  who  are  already 
very  near  the  gate ;  who  have  reasons  enough,  taken 
by  themselves,  for  believing  her  claims,  but  are 
perplexed  and  stopped  by  the  counter  arguments 
which  are  urged  against  her,  or  at  least  against  joining 
her. 

To-day,  then,  I  shall  fancy  an  objector  to  reply  to 
what  I  have  said  in  the  following  manner:  viz.,  I 
shall   suppose    him  to  say,   that  "  the   reproach  of 


265 

Catholicism  is,  not  what  it  does  not  do,  so  much  as 
what  it  does ;  that  its  teaching  and  its  training  do 
produce  a  certain  very  definite  character  on  a  nation 
and  on  individuals ;  and  that  character,  so  far  from 
being  too  religious  or  too  spiritual,  is  just  the  re- 
verse, very  like  the  world's ;  that  religion  is  a  sacred, 
awful,  mysterious,  solemn  matter ;  that  it  should  be 
approached  with  fear,  and  named,  as  it  were,  sotto 
voce :  whereas  Catholics,  whether  in  the  North  or 
the  South,  in  the  middle  ages  or  in  modern  times, 
exhibit  the  combined  and  contrary  faults  of  profane- 
aess  and  superstition.  There  is  a  bold,  shallow, 
hard,  indelicate  way  among  them  of  speaking  of 
even  points  of  faith,  which  is,  to  use  studiously  mild 
language,  utterly  out  of  taste,  and  indescribably 
offensive  to  any  person  of  ordinary  refinement. 
They  are  rude  where  they  should  be  reverent,  jocose 
where  they  should  be  grave,  and  loquacious  where 
they  should  be  silent.  The  most  sacred  feelings, 
the  most  august  doctrines,  are  glibly  enunciated  in 
the  shape  of  some  short  and  smart  theological  for- 
mula ;  purgatory,  hell,  and  the  evil  spirit,  are  a  sort 
of  household  words  upon  their  tongue ;  the  most 
solemn  duties,  such  as  confession,  or  saying  office, 
whether  as  spoken  of  or  as  performed,  have  a  busi= 
ness-like  air  and  a  mechanical  action  about  them, 
quite  inconsistent  with  their  real  nature.  Religion 
is  made  both  free  and  easy,  and  yet  formal.  Su- 
perstitions and  false  miracles  are  at  once  preached, 
12 


266 

assented  to,  and  laughed  at,  till  one  really  does  not 
know  what  is  believed  and  what  is  not,  or  whether 
anything  is  believed  at  all.  The  saints  are  lauded 
yet  affronted.  Take  medieval  England  or  France, 
or  modern  Belgium  or  Italy,  it  is  all  the  same ;  you 
have  your  boy- bishop  at  Salisbury,  your  lord  of 
misrule  at  Rheims,  and  at  Sens  your  feast  of  asses. 
Whether  in  the  South  now,  or  in  the  North  formerly, 
you  have  the  excesses  of  your  Carnival.  Legends, 
such  as  that  of  St.  Dunstan's  fight  with  .the  author 
of  evil  at  G-lastonbury,  are  popular  in  Germany,  in 
Spain,  in  Scotland,  and  in  Italy ;  while  in  Naples  or 
in  Seville  your  populations  rise  in  periodical  fury 
against  the  celestial  patrons  whom  they  ordinarily 
worship.  These  are  but  single  instances  of  a  wide- 
spread and  momentous  phenomenon,  to  which  you 
ought  not  to  shut  your  eyes,  and  to  which  we  can 
never  be  reconciled ;  a  phenomenon  in  which  we  see 
a  plain  providential  indication,  that,  in  spite  of  our 
certainty, — first,  that  there  is  a  Catholic  Church, 
next,  that  it  is  not  the  religious  communion  domi- 
nant in  England,  or  Russia,  or  Greece,  or  Prussia, 
or  Holland ;  in  short,  that  it  is  nothing  else  than  the 
communion  of  Rome, — still  it  is  our  bounden  duty 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Pope,  the  Holy  See, 
or  the  Church  of  which  it  is  the  centre."  Such  is 
the  charge,  my  brethren,  brought  against  the  Catho- 
lic Church,  both  by  the  Evangelical  section  of  the 
Establishment  and  by  your  own. 


267 

Now  I  grant  to  you,  that  to  no  natioual  differences 
can  be  attributed  a  character  of  religion  so  specific 
and  peculiar ;  it  is  too  uniform,  too  universal  to  be 
ascribed  to  anything  short  of  the  genius  of  Catho- 
licism itself;  that  is,  its  principles  and  influence 
acting  upon  human  nature,  such  as  it  is  everywhere 
found.  Such  must  be  the  fact,  and  I  accept  it ;  I 
accept  it,  I  repeat  in  general  terms  what  you  have 
said ;  but  I  would  add  to  it,  and  turn  a  fact  into  a 
general,  a  philosophical  truth.  I  say,  then,  that 
such  is  the  very  phenomenon,  which  must  necessarily 
result  from  a  revelation  of  divine  truth  falling  upon 
the  human  mind  in  its  existing  state  of  ignorance 
and  moral  feebleness. 

The  wonder  and  the  offence  which  Protestants 
feel,  arise,  in  no  small  measure,  from  the  fact  that 
they  hold  the  opinions  of  Protestants.  They  have 
been  taught  a  religion,  and  imbibed  ideas  and  feel- 
ings, and  are  suffering  under  disadvantages,  which 
create  the  difficulty  of  which  they  complain ;  and, 
to  remove  it,  I  shall  be  obliged,  as  on  some  former 
occasions,  against  my  will  to  explain  a  point  of  doc- 
trine. Protestants  then  consider,  that  faith  and  love 
are  insepatable:  where  there  is  faith,  there,  they 
think,  is  love  and  obedience ;  and  in  proportion  to 
the  strength  and  degree  of  the  former,  is  the  strength 
and  degree  of  the  latter.  They  do  not  think  the 
inconsistency  possible  of  really  believing  without 
obeying;  and,  where  they   see    disobedience,  they 


26B 

cannot  imagine  the  existence  of  true  faith.  Catho- 
lics, on  the  other  haad,  hold  that  faith  and  love, 
faith  and  obedience,  faith  aud  works,  are  simply 
separable,  and  ordinarily  separated  in  fact;  that  fjith 
does  not  imply  love,  obedience,  or  works;  that  the 
firmest  faith,  so  as  to  move  mountains,  may  exist 
without  love,  that  is,  true  faith,  as  truly  faith  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  word  as  the  faith  of  a  martyr  or 
a  doctor.  In  fact,  it  contemplates  a  gift  which 
Protestantism  does  not  imagine.  Faith  is  a  spiritual 
sight  of  the  unseen,  and  Protestantism  has  not  this 
sight;  it  does  not  see  the  unseen  ;this  habit,  this  act 
of  the  mind  is  foreign  to  it;  so,  since  it  keeps  the 
word  "  faith,"  it  is  obliged  to  find  some  other  mean- 
ing for  it ;  and  its  common,  perhaps  its  commonest, 
idea  is,  that  faith  is  substantially  the  same  as  obe- 
dience :  that  it  is  the  impulse,  the  motive  of  obedience, 
or  the  fervor  and  heartiness  which  attend  good  works. 
In  a  word,  that  faith  is  hope  or  love,  or  a  mixture  of 
the  two.  It  does  not  contemplate  faith  in  its  Catho- 
lic sense  ;  for  it  has  been  taught  by  flesh  and  bloody 
not  by  grace. 

Now  faith,  in  a  Catholic's  creed,  is  a  certainty  of 
things  not  seen,  but  revealed  ;  a  certainty,  preceded 
indeed  in  many  cases  by  particular  exercises  of  the 
intellect,  as  conditions,  by  reflection,  prayer,  stu  ly, 
argument,  or  the  like,  and  otdinarily,  by  the  instru- 
mental sacrament  of  Baptism,  but  caused  directly, 
by  a  supernatural  influence  on  the  mind  from  above. 


269 

It  is  thus  a  spiritual  sight ;  and  the  nearest  parallel 
by  which  it  can  be  illustrated  is  the  moral  sense. 
As  nature  has  impressed  upon  our  mind  a  faculty  of 
recognising  certain  moral  truths,  when  they  are  pre- 
sented to  us  from  without,  so  that  we  are  quite  sure 
that  veracity,  for  instance,  benevolence  and  purity, 
are  right  and  good,  and  that  their  contraries  involve 
guilt,  in  a  somewhat  similar  way,  grace  impresses 
upon  us  inwardly  that  revelation  which  comes  to  us 
Sensibly  by  the  ear  or  eye  ;  similarly,  yet  more  vividly 
and  distinctly,  because  the  mora)  perception  consists 
in  sentiments,  but  the  grace  of  faith  carries  the  mind 
on  to  objects.  This  certainty,  or  spiritual  sight, 
which  is  included  in  the  idea  of  faith,  is,  according 
to  Catholic  teaching,  perfectly  distinct  in  i's  own 
nature  from  the  desire,  intention,  and  power  of  acting 
agreeably  to  it.  As  men  may  know  perfectly  well 
that  they  ought  not  to  steal,  and  yet  may  deliberately 
take  and  appropriate  what  is  not  theirs  ;  so  may  they 
be  gifted  with  a  simple,  undoubting,  cloudless  belief, 
that,  for  instance,  Christ  is  in  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment, and  yet  commit  the  saci  ilege  of  breaking  open 
the  tabernacle,  and  carrying  off  the  consecrated 
particles  for  the  sake  of  the  precious  vessel  con- 
taining them.  It  is  said  in  Sciipture,  that  the  evil 
spirits  "believe  and  tremble;"  and  reckless  men, 
in  like  manner,  may,  in  the  very  sight  of  hell,  de-> 
liberately  sin  for  the  sake  of  some  temporary  grati- 
fication.    Under  these  circumstances,  even  though 


270 

I  did  not  assume  the  Catholic  view  of  the  subject  to 
be  true,  which  in  the  present  state  of  the  argument 
I  fairly  may  do  (for  I  conceive  that  I  have  led  you, 
my  brethren,  to  the  very  threshold  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  am  viewing  objections,  not  exactly  in 
themselves,  but  as  a  Catholic  accounts  for  them,  and 
disposes  of  them,  in  order  to  show  that  they  are  no 
bar  in  the  way  of  your  existing  arguments  for  Ca- 
tholicism carrying  you  on  to  conviction)  ;  and  though 
I  took  this  Catholic  doctrine  of  faith  and  works 
merely  as  an  hypothesis,  since  it  is  so  probable  and 
so  philosophical,  I  would  beg  you  to  consider  whether 
it  does  not  suffice  to  solve  the  difficulty  which  is 
created  in  your  minds  by  the  aspect  of  Catholic 
countries.  This,  too,  at  least  I  may  say  ;  if  it  shall 
tarn  out  that  the  aspect  of  Catholic  countries  is  ac- 
counted for  by  Catholic  doctrine,  at  least  that  aspect 
will  be  no  difficulty  to  you  when  once  you  join  the 
Catholic  Church :  for,  in  joining  the  Church,  you 
will  be  accepting  the  doctrine.  Walk  forward  then 
into  the  Catholic  Church,  and  the  difficulty,  like  a 
phantom,  will  disappear.  Now  I  am  going  to  show 
this  connexion  between  the  doctrine  and  the  fact. 

The  case  with  most  men  is  this  ;  certainly  it  is  the 
case  of  any  such  large  and  various  masses  of  men  as 
constitute  a  nation,  that  they  grow  up  more  or  less 
in  practical  neglect  of  their  Maker  and  their  duties 
to  Hirn.  Nature  tends  to  irreligion  and  vice,  and, 
in  matter  of  fact,  that  tendency  is  developed  and 


271 

fulfilled  in  any  multitude  of  men,  according  to  the 
saying  of  the  old  Greek,  that  "  the  many  are  bad," 
or  according  to  the  Scripture  testimony,  that  the 
world  is  the  enemy  of  its  Creator.  The  state  of  the 
ease  is  not  altered,  when  a  nation  has  been  baptized; 
still,  in  matter  of  fact,  nature  gets  the  better  of 
grace,  and  the  population  falls  into  a  state  of  guilt 
and  disadvantage  in  one  point  of  view  worse  than 
that  from  which  it  has  been  rescued.  This  is  the 
matter  of  fact,  as  Scripture  prophesied  it  should  be  : 
"  Many  are  called,  few  are  chosen  ;"  "  The  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  like  unto  a  net,  gathering  together 
of  every  kind."  But  still,  this  being  granted,  a 
Catholic  people  is  far  from  being  in  the  same  state 
in  all  respects  as  one  which  is  not  Catholic,  as  theo- 
logians teach  us.  A  soul  which  has  received  the 
grace  of  baptism,  receives  with  it  the  germ  or  power 
of  all  supernatural  virtues  whatever, — faith,  hope, 
charity,  meekness,  patience,  sobriety,  and  every 
other  that  can  be  named ;  and  if  it  commits  mortal 
sin,  it  falls  out  of  grace,  and  forfeits  these  super- 
natural powers.  It  is  no  longer  what  it  was,  and  is, 
so  far,  in  the  feeble  and  frightful  condition  of  those 
who  were  never  baptized.  But  there  are  certain 
remarkable  limitations  and  alleviations  in  its  punish- 
ment, and  one  is  this :  that  the  faculty  or  power  of 
faith  remains  to  it.  Of  course  it  may  go  on  to  resist 
and  destroy  this  supernatural  faculty  also ;  it  may, 
by  an  act  of  the  will,  rid  itself  of  its  faith,  as  it  has 


272 

stripped  itself  of  grace  and  love ;  or  it  may  gradually 
decay  in  its  faith  till  it  becomes  a  simple  infidel ; 
but  this  is  not  the  common  state  of  a  Catholic 
people.  What  commonly  happens  is  this,  that  they 
fall  under  the  temptations  to  vice  or  covetousness, 
which  naturally  and  urgently  beset  them,  but  faith  is 
left  to  them.  Thus  the  many  are  in  a  condition 
which  is  absolutely  novel  and  strange  in  the  ideas 
of  a  Protestant :  they  have  a  vivid  perception,  like 
sense,  of  things  unseen,  yet  have  no  desire  at  all,  or 
affection,  towards  them ;  they  have  knowledge  wit-h-i 
out  love.  Such  is  the  state  of  the  many;  the 
Church  at  the  same  time  ever  laboring  with  all  her 
might  to  bring  them  back  again  to  their  Maker ;  and 
in  fact  is  ever  bringing  back  vast  multitudes  one  by 
one,  though  one  by  one  they  are  ever  relapsing  from 
her.  The  necessity  of  yearly  confession,  the  Easter 
communion,  the  stated  seasons  of  indulgence,  the 
high  festivals,  Lent,  days  of  obligation,  with  their 
Masses  and  preaching, — these  ordinary  and  routine 
observances ;  and  the  extraordinary  methods  of  mis-* 
sions,  pilgrimages,  jubilees,  and  the  like,  are  the 
means  by  which  the  powers  of  the  world  unseen  are 
ever  acting  upon  the  corrupt  mass,  of  which  a  nation 
is  composed,  and  breaking  up  and  reversing  the 
dreadful  phenomenon  which  fact  and  Scripture  con- 
spire to  place  before  us. 

Nor  is  this  all :  good  and  bad  are  mixed  together, 
and  the  good  is  ever  influencing  and  mitigating  the 


273 

bad.  In  the  same  family  one  or  two  holy  souls  may 
shed  a  light  around,  and  raise  the  religious  tone  of 
the  rest.  la  large  and  profligate  towns  there  will 
be  planted  here  and  there  communities  of  religious 
men  and  women,  whose  exampl  •,  whose  appeaiance, 
whose  churches,  whose  ceremonies,  whose  devo- 
tions,— to  say  nothing  of  their  sacerdotal  functions, 
or  their  charitable  ministrations, — will  ever  be  coun- 
teracting the  intensity  of  the  poi>on.  Again,  you 
will  have  vast  multitudes  neither  good  nor  bad  ;  you 
will  have  many  scandals ;  you  will  have,  it  may  be, 
particulai  monasteries  in  a  state  of  relaxation  ;  rich 
communities  breaking  their  rule,  and  living  in  com- 
fort and  refinement,  and  individuals  among  them 
lapsing  into  sin ;  cathedrals  sheltering  a  host  of  offi- 
cials, many  of  whom  are  a  dishonor  to  the  sacred 
place:  and  in  country  districts  priests,  who  set  a  bad 
example  to  their  flock,  and  are  the  cause  of  anxiety 
and  grief  to  their  bishops.  And  besides,  you  will 
have  all  sorts  of  dispositions  and  intellects,  as  plen- 
tiful ly  of  course  as  in  a  Protestant  land :  there  are 
the  weak  and  the  strong-minded,  the  sharp  and  the 
dull,  the  passionate  and  the  phlegmatic,  the  generous 
and  the  selfish,  the  idle,  the  proud,  the  sceptical, 
the  dry-minded,  the  scheming,  the  enthusiastic,  the 
self-conceited,  the  strange,  the  eccentric;  all  of 
whom  grace  leaves  in  their  respective  natural  cast  or 
tendency  of  mind.  Thus  we  have  before  us  a  con- 
fused and  motley  scene,  as  the  world  presents  gene- 
12* 


274 

rally ;  good  and  evil  mingled  together  in  all  conceiva- 
ble measures  of  combination  and  varieties  of  result ; 
a  perpetual  vicissitude ;  the  prospect  brightening, 
and  then  overcast  again ;  luminous  spots,  tracts  of 
splendor,  patches  of  darkness,  twilight  regions,  and 
the  glimmer  of  day :  but,  in  spite  of  this  moral 
confusion,  in  one  and  all  a  clear  intellectual  appre- 
hension of  the  truth. 

Now  as  to  this  conflict  of  good  and  evil,  you  will 
say  that  it  is  seen  in  a  Protestant  country  in  just  the 
same  way :  that  is  not  the  point;  but  this, — that  on 
the  mixed  multitude,  and  on  each  of  them,  good  or 
bad,  is  written,  is  stamped  deep,  this  same  wonderful 
knowledge.  Just  as  in  England,  the  whole  com- 
munity, whatever  the  moral  state  of  individuals, 
knows  about  railroads  and  electric  telegraphs ;  and 
about  the  Court,  and  men  in  power,  and  proceedings 
in  Parliament;  and  about  religious  controversies, 
and  about  foreign  affairs,  and  about  all  that  is  going 
on  around  and  beyond  them  ;  so,  in  a  Catholic  coun- 
try, the  ideas  of  heaven  and  hell,  Christ  and  the 
evil  spirit,  saints,  angels,  souls  in  purgatory,  grace, 
the  blessed  Sacrament,  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass, 
absolution,  indulgences,  the  virtue  of  relics,  of  holy 
images,  of  holy  water,  and  of  other  holy  things,  are 
facts,  by  good  and  bad,  by  young  and  old,  by  rich 
and  poor,  to  be  taken  for  granted.  They  are  facts 
brought  home  to  them  by  faith ;  substantially  the 
same  to  all,  though  colored  by  their  respective  minds, 


275 

according  as  they  are  religious  or  not,  and  according 
to  the  degree  of  their  religion.  Religious  men  use 
them  well,  the  irreligious  use  them  ill,  the  incon- 
sistent vary  in  their  use  of  them,  but  all  use  them. 
As  the  idea  of  God  is  before  the  minds  ot  all  men 
in  a  community  not  Catholic,  so,  but  more  vividly, 
these  revealed  ideas  confront  the  minds  of  a  Catholic 
people,  whatever  be  the  moral  state  of  that  people, 
taken  one  by  one.  They  are  facts  attested  by  each 
to  all,  and  by  all  to  each,  common  property,  primary 
points  of  thought,  and  landmarks,  as  it  were,  upon 
the  territory  of  knowledge. 

Now,  this  being  considered,  you  will  see  how  many 
things  take  place  of  necessity,  which  to  Protestants 
seem  shocking,  and  which  could  not  be  avoided, 
unless  it  had  been  promised  that  the  Church  should 
consist  of  none  but  the  predestinate ;  nay,  unless  it 
consisted  of  none  but  the  educated  and  refined.  It 
is  the  spectacle  of  supernatural  faith  acting  upon 
the  multitudinous  mind  of  a  nation;  of  a  divine 
principle  dwelling  in  the  myriad  of  characters,  good, 
bad,  and  intermediate,  into  which  the  old  stock  of 
Adam  grafted  into  Christ  has  developed.  If  a  man 
sins  grossly  in  a  Protestant  country,  he  is  at  once 
exposed  to  the  temptation  of  disbelief;  and  he  is 
irritated  when  he  is  threatened  with  judgment  to 
come.  Men  are  ever  irritated  with  conclusions  and 
inferences;  Protestants  hold  that  there  is  a  hell,  as 
the  conclusion  of  a  syllogism;  they  prove  it  from 


276 

Scripture ;  it  is  from  first  to  last  a  point  of  contro- 
versy, and  an  opinion ;  and  a  vicious  man  is  angry 
with  those  who  hold  opinions  condemnatory  of  him- 
self, because  those  opinions  are  the  creation  of  the 
holders,  and  seem  to  reflect  personally  upon  him. 
Nothing  is  so  irritating  to  others  as  private  judg- 
ment. But  men  are  not  commonly  irritated  by  facts ; 
it  would  be  irrational  to  be  so,  as  it  is  in  children, 
who  beat  the  ground  when  they  fall  down.  A  bad 
Catholic  does  not  deny  hell,  for  it  is  to  him  an  incon- 
testable fact,  brought  home  to  him  by  that  superna- 
tural faith,  with  which  he  assents  to  the  Divine 
Word  speaking  through  Holy  Church;  he  is  not 
angry  with  others  for  holding  it,  for  it  is  no  private 
decision  of  their  own.  His  thoughts  take  a  different 
turn ;  he  looks  up  to  our  Blessed  Lady ;  he  knows 
by  supernatural  faith  her  power  and  her  goodness ; 
he  turns  the  truth  to  his  own  purpose,  his  bad  pur- 
pose, and  he  makes  her  his  patroness  and  protectress 
against  the  penalty  of  sins  which  he  does  not  mean 
to  abandon. 

Hence  the  strange  stories  of  highwaymen  and 
brigands  devout  to  the  Madonna.  And,  their 
wishes  leading  to  the  belief,  they  begin  to  circulate 
stories  of  her  much- desired  compassion  towards 
impenitent  offenders  ;  and  these  stories,  fostered  by 
the  circumstances  of  the  day,  and  confused  with 
others  similar,  but  not  impossible,  for  a  time  are  in 
repute.     Thus  the  Blessed  Virgin  has  been  reported 


277 

to  deliver  the  reprobate  from  hell,  and  to  transfer 
them  to  purgatory;  and  absolutely  to  secure  from 
perdition  all  who  are  devout  to  her,  repentance  not 
being  contemplated  as  the  means.  Or  men  have 
thought,  by  means  of  some  sacred  relic,  to  be  se- 
cured from  death  in  their  perilous  and  guilty  expe- 
ditions. So,  in  the  middle  ages,  great  men  could 
not  go  out  to  hunt  without  hearing  Mass,  but  were 
content  that  the  priest  should  mutilate  it,  and  worse, 
to  bring  it  within  limits.  Similar  phenomena  occur 
in  the  history  of  chivalry :  the  tournaments  were 
held  in  defiance  of  the  excommunications  of  the 
Church,  yet  were  conducted  with  a  show  of  devotion ; 
ordeals  again  were  even  religious  rites,  yet  in  like 
manner  undergone  in  spite  of  the  Church's  prohibi- 
tion. We  know  the  dissolute  character  of  the  knights 
of  chivalry  and  of  the  troubadours;  yet  that  disso- 
luteness, which  would  lead  Protestant  poets  and 
travellers  to  scoff  at  religion,  led  them  not  to  deny 
revealed  truth,  but  to  combine  it  with  their  own 
wild  and  lawless  profession.  The  knight  swore 
before  Almighty  God,  His  Blessed  Mother,  and  the 
ladies :  the  troubadour  offered  tapers,  and  paid  for 
Masses,  for  the  success  of  his  earthly  attachment ; 
and  she  in  turn  painted  her  votary  under  the  figure 
of  some  saint.  Just  as  a  heathen  phraseology  i3 
now  in  esteem,  and  "  hymeneals"  are  spoken  of,  and 
the  trump  of  fame,  and  the  trident  of  Britannia, 
and  a  royal  cradle  is  ornamented  with  figures  of  Nox 


278 

and  Somnus ;  so  in  a  Catholic  age  or  country,  the 
Blessed  Saints  will  be  invoked  by  virtuous  and 
vicious  in  every  undertaking,  and  will  have  their 
place  in  every  room  of  palace  or  of  cottage.  Vice 
does  not  involve  a  neglect  of  the  external  duties  of 
religion.  The  Crusaders  had  faith  sufficient  to  bind 
them  to  a  perilous  pilgrimage  and  warfare ;  they 
kept  the  Friday's  abstinence,  and  planted  the  tents 
of  their  mistresses  within  the  shadow  of  the  pavilion 
of  the  glorious  St.  Louis.  There  are  other  pilgri- 
mages besides  military  ones,  and  other  religious 
journeys  besides  the  march  upon  Jerusalem;  but 
the  character  of  all  of  them  is  pretty  much  the 
same,  as  St.  Jerome  and  St.  Gregory  Nyssen  bear 
witness  in  the  first  age  of  the  Church.  It  is  a 
mixed  multitude,  some  most  holy,  perhaps  even 
saints ;  others  penitent  sinners ;  but  others,  again,  a 
mixture  of  pilgrim  and  beggar,  or  pilgrim  and  rob- 
ber, or  half  gipsy,  or  three-quarters  boon  companion, 
or  at  least,  with  nothing  saintly,  and  little  religious 
about  them.  They  will  let  you  wash  their  feet,  and 
serve  them  at  table,  and  the  hosts  have  more  merit 
for  their  ministry  than  the  guests  for  their  weariness. 
Yet,  one  and  all,  saints  and  sinners,  have  faith  in 
things  invisible,  which  each  uses  in  his  own  way. 

Listen  to  their  conversation ;  listen  to  the  con- 
versation of  any  multitude,  or  any  private  party  ; 
what  strange  oaths  mingle  with  it!  God's  heart, 
and   God's   eyes,   and   God's  wounds,   and   God's 


279 

blood:  you  cry  out,  "How  profane !"  Doubtless; 
but  do  you  not  see,  that  the  special  profaneness 
above  Protestant  oaths  lies,  not  in  the  words,  but 
simply  in  the  speaker,  and  is  the  necessary  result  of 
that  insight  into  the  invisible  world,  which  you  have 
not  ?  You  use  the  vague  words  "  Providence,"  or 
"  the  Deity,"  or  "good  luck,"  or  "  nature;"  when 
we,  whether  now  or  of  old,  realize  the  Creator  in  His 
living  works,  instruments,  and  personal  manifesta- 
tions, and  speak  of  the  "  Sacred  Heart,"  or  "  the 
Mother  of  mercies,"  or  "  our  Lady  of  Walsingham," 
or  "  St.  George,  for  merry  England","  or  loving  "  St. 
Francis,"  or  dear  "  St.  Philip."  Your  people  would 
be  as  varied  and  fertile  in  their  adjurations  and  in- 
vocations as  a  Catholic  populace,  if  they  believed  as 
we.  Again,  listen  how  freely  the  name  of  the  evil 
spirit  issues  from  the  mouth  even  of  the  better  sort 
of  men.  What  is  meant  by  this  very  off-hand  men- 
tion of  the  most  horrible  object  in  creation,  of  one, 
who,  if  allowed,  could  reduce  us  to  ashes  by  the 
very  hideousness  of  his  countenance,  or  the  odor  of 
his  breath  ?  I  suppose  they  act  upon  the  advice 
of  the  great  St.  Anthony :  he,  in  the  lonely  wilder- 
ness, had  conflicts  enough  with  the  enemy,  and  he 
has  given  us  the  result  of  his  long  experience.  In 
the  sermon  which  his  saintly  biographer  puts  into 
his  mouth,  he  teaches  his  hearers  that  the  devil  and 
his  host  are  not  to  be  feared  by  those  who  are  within 
the  fold,  for  the  Good  Shepherd  has  put  the  wolf  to 


280 

flight.  Henceforth  he  could  do  no  more  than  frighten 
them  with  empty  noises,  except  by  some  particular 
permission  of  God,  and  pretend  to  do  what  was  now 
beyond  his  power.  The  experience  of  a  saint  is 
imprudently  acted  on  by  sinners ;  not  as  if  Satan's 
malice  were  not  equal  to  any  assault  upon  body  or 
soul,  but  faith  accepts  the  word  that  his  rule  is 
broken,  and  that  any  child  or  peasant  may  ordinarily 
make  sport  of  him  and  put  him  to  ridiculous  flight 
by  the  use  of  the  "  Hail,  Mary !"  or  holy  water,  or 
the  sign  of  the  cross. 

Once  more,  listen  to  the  stories,  songs,  and  ballads 
of  the  populace;  their  rude  and  boisterous  merri- 
ment still  runs  upon  the  great  invisible  subjects 
which  possess  their  imagination.  Their  ideas,  of 
whatever  sort,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  rise  out 
of  the  next  world.  Hence  if  they  would  have 
plays,  the  subjects  are  sacred ;  if  they  would  have 
games  and  sports,  these  fall,  as  it  were,  into  pro- 
cession, and  are  formed  upon  the  model  of  sacred 
rites  and  sacred  persons.  If  they  sing  and  jest,  the 
Madonna,  and  the  Bambino,  or  St.  Peter,  or  some 
other  saint  is  introduced,  not  from  irreverence,  but 
because  these  are  the  ideas  which  absorb  them. 
There  is  a  festival  in  the  streets ;  you  look  about : 
what  is  it  you  see  ?  What  it  would  be  impossible 
to  do  in  London.  Set  up  a  large  crucifix  at  Charing 
Cross ;  the  police  would  think  you  simply  insane. 
Insane,  and  truly  ;  but  why  ?  why  dare  you  not  do 


281 

it?  why  must  you  not?  because  you  are  averse  to 
the  sacred  sign  ?  Not  so ;  you  have  it  in  your 
chamber.  A  Catholic  again  would  scarcely  dare  to 
do  so,  more  than  another.  It  is  true  that  awful, 
touching,  winning  Form  has  before  now  converted 
the  very  savage  who  gazed  on  it ;  he  has  wondered, 
has  asked  what  it  meant,  has  broken  into  tears,  and 
been  converted  ere  he  knew  that  he  believed.  Th9 
manifestation  of  love  has  been  the  incentive  to  faith. 
I  cannot  certainly  predict  what  would  take  place,  if 
a  saint  appealed  to  the  guilty  consciences  of  those 
thousand  passers-by,  through  the  instrumentality  of 
the  Divine  Sign.  But  such  occurrences  are  not  of 
every  day ;  what  you  would  too  securely  and  con- 
fidently foretell,  my  brethren,  were  such  an  exhi- 
bition made,  would  be,  that  it  would  but  excite  the 
scorn,  the  rage,  the  blasphemy,  of  the  out-pouring 
flocking  multitude,  a  multitude  who  in  their  hearts 
are  unbelievers.  There  is  no  idea  in  the  national 
mind,  supernaturally  implanted,  which  the  crucifix 
embodies.  Let  a  Catholic  mob  be  as  profligate  in 
conduct  as  an  English,  still  it  cannot  withstand,  it 
cannot  disown,  it  can  but  worship  the  cruciGx  ;  it  is 
the  external  representation  of  a  fact,  of  which  one 
and  all  are  conscious  to  themselves  and  to  each 
other.  And  hence,  I  say,  in  their  fairs  and  places 
of  amusement,  in  the  booths,  upon  the  stalls,  upon 
the  doors  of  wine-shops,  will  be  paintings  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  or  St.  Michael,  or  the  souls  in  pur** 


282 

gatory,  or  of  some  Scripture  subject.  Innocence, 
guilt,  and  what  is  between  the  two,  all  range  them- 
selves under  the  same  banners;  for  even  the  resorts 
of  sin  will  be  made  doubly  frightful  by  the  blasphe- 
mous introduction  of  some  sainted  patron. 

You  enter  into  one  of  the  churches  close  upon  the 
scene  of  festivity,  and  you  turn  your  eyes  to  a  con- 
fessional. The  penitents  are  crowding  for  admission, 
and  they  seem  to  have  no  shame,  or  solemnity,  or 
reserve  about  the  errand  on  which  they  are  come ; 
till  at  length,  on  a  penitent's  turning  from  the  grate, 
one  tall  woman,  bolder  than  a  score  of  men,  darts 
forward  from  a  distance  into  the  place  he  has  vacated, 
to  the  disappointment  of  the  many  who  have  waited 
longer  than  she.  You  almost  groan  under  the 
weight  of  your  imagination  that  such  a  soul,  so 
selfish,  so  unrecollected,  must  surely  be  in  very  ill 
dispositions  for  so  awful  a  sacrament.  You  look  at 
the  priest,  and  he  has  on  his  face  a  look  almost  of 
impatience,  or  of  good-natured  compassion,  at  the 
voluble  and  superfluous  matter  which  is  the  staple 
of  her  confession.  The  priests,  you  think,  are  no 
better  than  the  people.  My  dear  brethren,  be  not 
so  uncharitable,  so  unphilosophical.  Things  we 
thoroughly  believe,  things  we  see,  things  which  occur 
to  us  every  day,  we  treat  as  things  which  do  occur 
and  are  seen  daily,  be  they  of  this  world  or  be  they 
of  the  next.  Even  Bishop  Butler  should  have 
taught  you  that  "  practical  habits  are  strengthened 


283 

by  repeated  acts,  and  passive  impressions  grow 
weaker  by  being  repeated  upon  us."  It  is  not  by 
frames  of  mind,  it  is  not  by  emotions,  that  we  must 
judge  of  real  religion  ;  it  is  the  having  a  will  and  a 
heart  set  towards  those  things  unseen ;  and,  though 
impatience  and  rudeness  are  to  be  subdued,  and  are 
faulty  even  in  their  minutest  exhibitions,  yet  do  not 
argue  from  them  the  absence  of  faith,  nor  yet  of 
ove  or  of  contrition.  You  turn  away  half  satisfied, 
and  what  do  ycu  see  ?  There  is  a  feeble  old  woman, 
who  first  genuflects  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament, 
and  then  steals  her  neighbor's  handkerchief  or 
prayer  book,  who  is  intent  on  his  devotions.  Here 
at  last,  you  say,  is  a  thing  absolutely  indefensible 
and  inexcusable.  Doubtless  ;  but  what  does  it 
prove?  Does  England  bear  no  thieves?  or  do  you 
think  this  poor  creature  an  unbeliever  ?  or  do  ycu 
exclaim  against  Catholicism,  which  has  made  her  so 
profane?  But  why?  Faith  is  illuminative,  not 
operative ;  it  does  not  force  obedience,  though  it 
increases  responsibility;  it  heightens  guilt,  it  does 
not  prevent  sin ;  the  will  is  the  source  of  action,  not 
an  influence  from  without,  acting  mechanically  on 
the  feelings.  She  worships  and  she  sins  ;  she  kneels 
because  she  believes,  she  steals  because  she  does  not 
love  ;  she  may  be  out  of  Grod's  grace,  she  is  not 
altogether  out  of  His  sight. 

You  come  out  again  and  mix  in  the  idle  and  dissi- 
pated throng,  and  you  fall  in  with  a  man  in  a  palmer's 


284 

dress  selling  false  relics,  and  a  credulous  circle  of 
customers  buying  them  as  greedily  as  though  they 
were  the  supposed  French  laces  and  India  silks  of  a 
pedler's  basket.  One  simple  soul  has  bought  of  him 
a  cure  for  the  rheumatism  or  ague,  which  might  form 
a  case  of  conscience.  It  is  said  to  be  a  relic  of  St. 
Cuthbert,  but  only  has  virtue  at  sunrise,  and  when 
applied  with  three  crosses  to  the  bead,  arms,  and 
feet.  You  pass  on,  and  encounter  a  rude  son  of  the 
Church,  more  like  a  showman  than  a  religious,  re- 
counting to  the  gaping  multitude  some  tale  of  a 
vision  of  the  invisible  world,  seen  by  Brother  Au- 
gustine of  the  Friars  Minors,  or  by  a  holy  Jesuit 
preacher  who  died  in  the  odour  of  sanctity,  and 
sending  round  his  bag  to  collect  pence  for  the  souls 
in  purgatory ;  and  of  some  appearance  of  our  Lady 
(the  like  of  which  has  really  been  before  and  since), 
but  on  no  authority  except  popular  report,  and 
in  no  shape  but  that  which  popular  caprice  has  given 
it.  You  go  forward,  and  you  find  preparations 
proceeding  for  a  great  pageant  or  mystery ;  it  is  a 
high  festival,  and  the  incorporated  trades  have  each 
undertaken  their  special  religious  celebration.  The 
plumbers  and  glaziers  are  to  play  the  Creation  ;  tho 
barbers  the  Call  of  Abraham  ;  and  at  night  is  to  be 
the  grandest  performance  of  all,  the  Resurrection 
and  Last  Judgment,  played  by  the  carpenters,  ma- 
sons, and  blacksmiths.  Heaven  and  hell  are  repre- 
sented,—saints,    devils,  and  living  men;    and  the 


285 

chef  cPceuvre  of  the  exhibition  is  the  display  of  fire- 
works to  be  let  off  as  the  finale.  "How  unutterably 
profane!"  again  you  cry.  Yes,  profane  to  you,  my 
dear  brother — profane  to  a  population  which  only 
half  believes ;  not  profane  to  those  who  believe 
wholly,  who,  one  and  all,  have  a  vision  within,  which 
corresponds  with  what  they  see,  which  resolves  itself 
into,  or  rather  takes  up  into  itself,  the  external 
pageant,  whatever  be  the  moral  condition  of  each 
individual  composing  the  mass.  They  gaze,  and,  in 
drinking  in  the  exhibition  with  their  eyes,  they  are 
making  one  continuous  and  intense  act  of  faith. 

You  turn  to  go  home,  and,  in  your  way,  you  pass 
through  a  retired  quarter  of  the  city.  Look  up  at 
those  sacred  windows ;  they  belong  to  the  convent 
of  the  Perpetual  Adoration,  or  to  the  poor  Clares, 
or  to  the  Carmelites  of  the  reform  of  St.  Theresa, 
or  to  the  nuns  of  the  Visitation.  Seclusion,  silence, 
watching,  adoration,  is  their  life  day  and  night. 
The  immaculate  Lamb  of  God  is  ever  before  the 
eyes  of  the  worshippers;  or  at  least  the  invisible 
mysteries  of  faith  ever  stand  out,  as  if  in  bodily 
shape,  before  their  mental  gaze.  Where  will  you 
find  such  a  realized  heaven  upon  earth  ?  Yet  that 
very  sight  has  acted  otherwise  on  the  mind  of  a  weak 
sister  ;  and  the  very  keenness  of  her  faith  and  wild 
desire  of  approaching  the  object  of  it,  has  led  her 
to  fancy  or  to  feign  that  she  has  received  that  sin- 
gular favor  vouchsafed  only  to  a  few  elect  souls  ;  and 


286 

she  points  to  God's  wounds,  as  imprinted  on  her 
hands,  and  feet,  and  side,  though  she  herself  has 
been  instrumental  in  their  formation. 

In  these  and  a  thousand  other  ways  it  may  be 
shown,  that  that  special  character  of  a  Catholic 
country,  which  offends  you,  my  brethren,  so  much, 
that  mixture  of  seriousness  and  levity,  that  familiar 
handling  of  sacred  things,  in  word  and  deed,  by  good 
and  bad,  that  publication  of  religious  thoughts  and 
practices,  so  far  as  it  is  found,  is  the  necessary  con- 
sequence of  its  being  Catholic.  It  is  the  conse- 
quence of  mixed  multitudes  all  having  faith;  for 
faith  impresses  the  mind  with  supernatural  truths, 
as  if  it  were  sight,  and  the  faith  of  this  man,  and 
the  faith  of  that,  is  one  and  the  same,  and  creates 
one  and  the  same  impression.  The  truths  of  religion 
then  stand  in  the  place  of  facts,  and  public  ones. 
Sin  does  not  obliterate  the  impression ;  and  did  it 
begin  to  do  so  in  particular  cases,  the  consistent 
testimony  of  all  around  would  bring  back  the  mind 
to  itself,  and  prevent  the  incipient  evil.  Ordinarily 
speaking,  once  faith,  always  faith.  Eyes  once 
opened  to  good,  as  to  evil,  are  not  closed  again; 
and,  if  men  reject  the  truth,  it  is,  in  most  cases,  a 
question  whether  they  have  ever  possessed  it.  It  is 
just  the  reverse  among  a  Protestant  people  ; — private 
judgment  does  but  create  opinions,  and  nothing 
more ;  and  these  opinions  are  peculiar  to  each  indi- 
vidual,  and   different  from  those  of  any  one  else. 


287 

Hence  it  leads  men  to  keep  their  feelings  to  them* 
selves,  because  the  avowal  of  them  only  causes  irri- 
tation or  ridicule  in  others.  Since,  too,  they  have 
no  certainty  of  the  doctrines  they  profess,  they  do 
but  feel  that  they  ought  to  believe  them,  and  they 
try  to  believe  them,  and  they  nurse  the  offspring  of 
their  reason,  as  a  sickly  child,  bringing  it  out  of 
doors  only  on  fine  days.  They  feel  very  clear  and 
quite  satisfied,  while  they  are  very  still ;  but  if  they 
turn  about  their  head,  or  change  their  posture  ever 
so  little,  the  vision  of  the  Unseen,  like  a  mirage,  is 
gone  from  them.  So  they  keep  the  exhibition  of 
their  faith  for  high  days  and  great  occasions,  when  it 
comes  forth  with  sufficient  pomp  and  gravity  of  lan- 
guage, and  ceremonial  of  manner.  Truths  slowly 
totter  out  with  Scripture  texts  at  their  elbow,  as 
unable  to  walk  alone.  Moreover  they  know,  if  such 
and  such  things  he  true,  what  ought  to  be  the  voice, 
the  tone,  the  gesture,  and  the  carriage  attendant 
upon  them ;  thus  reason,  which  is  the  substance  of 
their  faith,  supplies  the  rubrics,  as  1  may  call  them, 
of  their  behavior.  This,  some  of  you,  my  brethren, 
call  reverence ;  though  I  am  obliged  to  say,  it  is  as 
much  a  mannerism,  and  an  unpleasant  mannerism,  as 
that  of  the  Evangelical  party,  which  they  have 
hitherto  condemned.  They  condemn  Catholics,  be- 
cause, however  religious,  they  are  natural,  unaffected, 
easy  and  cheerful,  in  their  mention  of  sacred  things ; 
and  they  think  themselves  never  so  real  as  when 
they  are  solemn. 


288 

And  now,  my  brethren,  I  will  only  observe,  in 
conclusion,  how  merciful  a  providence  it  has  beefy 
that  faith  and  love  are  separable,  as  the  Catholic 
creed  teaches.  I  suppose  it  might  be,  as  Luther 
said  it  was,  had  God  so  willed  it, — that  faith  and 
love  were  so  intimately  one,  that  the  abandonment 
of  the  latter  was  the  forfeiture  of  the  former.  Now 
did  sin  not  only  throw  the  soul  out  of  Gods  favor, 
but  at  once  empty  it  of  every  supernatural  principle^ 
we  should  see  in  Catholics,  what  is,  alas  !  so  common 
among  Protestants,  souls  brought  back  to  a  sense  of 
guilt,  frightened  at  their  state,  yet  having  no  re- 
source, and  nothing  to  build  upon.  Again  and 
again  it  happens,  that,  after  committing  some  sin 
greater  than  usual,  or  being  roused  after  a  course  of 
sin,  or  frightened  by  sickness,  a  Protestant  wishes 
to  repent ;  but  what  is  he  to  fall  back  upon  ?  whither 
is  he  to  go?  what  is  he  to  do?  He  has  to  dig  and 
plant  his  foundation.  Every  step  has  to  be  learned^ 
and  all  is  in  the  dark ;  he  is  to  search  and  labor,  and 
after  all  for  an  opinion.  And  then,  supposing  him 
to  have  made  some  progress,  perhaps  he  is  overcome 
again  by  temptation,  he  falls,  and  all  is  undone 
again.  His  doctrinal  views  vanish,  and  it  can  hardly 
be  said  that  he  believes  anything.  But  the  Catholic 
knows  just  where  he  is,  and  what  he  has  to  do ;  no 
time  is  lost,  when  compunction  comes  upon  him ; 
but,  while  his  feelings  are  fresh  and  keen,  he  can 
betake  himself  to  the  appointed  means  of  cure.  He 
may  be  ever  falling,  but  his  faith  is  a  continual  in-- 


289 

vitiation  and  persuasive  to  repent.  The  poor  Pro- 
testant adds  sin  to  sin,  and  his  best  aspirations  come 
to  nothing ;  the  Catholic  wipes  off  his  guilt  again 
and  again ;  and  thus,  even  if  his  repentance  does 
n  >t  endure,  and  he  has  not  strength  to  persevere,  in 
a  certain  sense  he  is  never  getting  worse,  but  ever 
beginning  afresh.  Nor  does  the  apparent  easiness 
of  pardon  operate  as  an  encouragement  to  sin ;  un- 
less repentance  be  easy,  and  the  grace  of  repentance 
to  be  expected,  when  it  has  already  been  quenched, 
or  unless  past  repentance  avail,  when  it  is  not  per- 
severed in. 

And,  above  all,  let  death  come  suddenly  upon  him, 
and  let  him  have  the  preparation  of  a  poor  hour; 
what  is  the  Protestant  to  do  ?  He  has  nothing  but 
sights  of  this  world  around  him ;  wife,  and  children, 
and  friends,  and  worldly  interests  :  the  Catholic  has 
these  also,  but  the  Protestant  has  nought  but  these. 
He  may,  indeed,  in  particular  cases,  have  got  firm 
hold  of  his  party's  view  of  justification  or  regenera- 
tion ;  or  it  may  be,  he  has  a  real  apprehension  of 
our  Lord's  divinity,  which  comes  from  divine  grace. 
But  I  am  speaking,  not  of  the  more  serious  portion 
of  the  community,  but  of  the  popular  religion ;  and 
I  wish  you  to  take  a  man  at  random  in  one  of  our 
vast  towns,  and  tell  me,  has  he  any  supernatural 
idea  before  his  mind  at  all?  The  minutes  hasten 
on;  and,  having  to  learn  everything,  supposing  him 
desirous  of  learning,  he  can  practise  nothing.  His 
13 


290 

thoughts  rise  up  in  some  vague  desire  of  mercy, 
which  neither  he  nor  the  bystanders  can  analyze. 
He  asks  for  some  chapter  of  the  Bible  to  be  read  to 
him,  but  rather  as  the  expression  of  his  horror  and 
bewilderment,  than  as  the  token  of  bis  faith  ;  and 
then  his  intellect  becomes  clouded,  and  he  dies. 
How  different  is  it  with  the  Catholic!  He  has 
within  him  almost  a  principle  of  recovery,  certainly 
an  instrument  of  it.  He  may  have  spoken  lightly  of 
the  Almighty,  but  he  has  ever  believed  in  Him  ;  he 
has  sung  jocose  songs  about  the  Blessed  Virgin  and 
Saints,  and  told  good  stories  about  the  evil  spirit, 
but  in  levity,  not  in  contempt ;  he  has  been  angry 
with  his  heavenly  patrons  when  things  went  ill  with 
him,  but  with  the  waywardness  of  a  child  who  is 
cross  with  his  parents.  They  were  ever  before  him, 
even  when  he  was  in  the  mire  of  mortal  sin,  and  in 
the  wrath  of  the  Almighty,  as  lights  burning  in  the 
firmament  of  his  intellect,  though  he  had  no  part 
with  them,  as  he  perfectly  knew.  He  has  absented 
himself  from  his  Easter  duties  years  out  of  number, 
but  he  never  denied  he  was  a  Catholic.  He  has 
laughed  at  priests,  and  formed  rash  judgments  of 
them,  and  slandered  them  to  others,  but  not  as 
doubting  the  divinity  of  their  function  and  the  virtue 
of  their  ministrations.  He  has  attended  Mass  care- 
lessly and  heartlessly,  but  he  was  ever  aware  what 
was  before  his  eyes,  under  the  veil  of  material  sym- 
bols, in  that  august  and  adorable  action.     So,  when 


291 

the  news  comes  to  him  that  he  is  to  die,  and  he  can- 
not gee  a  priest,  and  the  ray  of  God's  grace  pierces 
his  heart,  and  he  yearns  after  Him  whom  he  has 
neglected,  it  is  with  no  inarticulate  confused  emotion, 
which  does  but  oppress  him,  and  which  has  no  means 
of  relief.  His  thoughts  at  once  take  shape  and 
order;  they  mount  up,  each  in  its  due  place,  to  the 
great  objects  of  faith,  which  are  as  surely  in  his 
mind  as  they  are  in  heaven.  He  addresses  himself 
to  his  crucifix ;  he  interests  the  Blessed  Virgin  in 
his  behalf;  he  betakes  himself  to  his  patron  Saints; 
he  calls  his  good  angel  to  his  side ;  he  professes  his 
desire  of  that  sacramental  absolution  which  for  cir- 
cumstances he  cannot  obtain ;  he  exercises  himself 
in  acts  of  faith,  hope,  charity,  contrition,  resignation, 
and  other  virtues  suitable  to  his  extremity.  True, 
he  is  going  into  the  unseen  world ;  but  true  also, 
that  that  unseen  world  has  already  been  with  him 
here.  True,  he  is  going  to  a  foreign,  but  not  to  a 
strange  place ;  judgment  and  purgatory  are  familiar 
ideas  to  him,  more  fully  realized  within  him  even 
than  death.  He  has  had  a  much  deeper  perception 
of  purgatory,  though  it  be  a  supernatural  object, 
than  of  death,  though  a  natural  one.  The  enemy 
rushes  on  him,  to  overthrow  the  faith  on  which  he 
is  built ;  but  the  whole  tenor  of  his  past  life,  his 
very  jesting,  and  his  very  oaths,  have  been  overruled, 
to  create  in  him  a  habit  of  faith,  girding  round  and 
protecting   the   supernatural   principle.     And  thus 


292 

even  one  who  has  heen  a  bad  Catholic  may  have  a 
hope  in  his  death,  to  which  the  most  virtuous  of 
Protestants,  nay,  my  dear  brethren,  the  most  correct 
and  most  thoughtful  among  yourselves,  however  able, 
or  learned,  or  sagacious,  if  you  have  lived,  not  by 
faith,  but  by  private  judgment,  are  necessarily 
strangers. 


LECTURE  X. 


DIFFERENCES     AMONG     CATHOLICS     NO     PREJUDICE     TO 
TOE    UNITY    OF    THE    CIIURCII. 

I  am  going  to-day  to  take  notice  of  an  objection 
to  the  claims  of  that  great  communion,  into  which, 
my  brethren,  I  am  inviting  you,  which  to  me  sounds 
so  feeble  and  unworthy,  that  I  am  loth  to  take  it 
for  my  subject;  for  an  answer,  if  corresponding, 
must  be  trifling  and  uninteresting  also,  and,  if  care- 
ful and  exact,  will  be  but  a  waste  of  effort.  I  there- 
fore do  not  know  what  to  do  with  it :  treat  it  with 
respect  I  cannot;  yet  since  it  is  frequently,  nay 
triumphantly,  urged  by  those  who  wish  to  make  the 
most  of  such,  difficulties  as  they  can  bring  together 
against  our  claims,  I  do  not  like  to  pass  it  over. 
Bear  with  me  then,  my  brethren,  nay,  I  may  say, 
sympathize  with  me,  if  you  find  that  the  subject  is 
not  one  which  is  very  fertile  in  profitable  reflection. 

When  then  the  variations  of  Protestantism,  or  the 
divisions  in  the  Establishment,  are  urged  as  a  reason 


294 

for  your  distrusting  the  communion  in  which  they 
are  found,  it  is  answered,  that  divisions  as  serious 
and  as  decided  are  to  be  found  in  the  Catholic 
Church.  It  is  a  well-known  point  in  controversy, 
to  say  that  the  Catholic  Church  has  not  real  uuity 
any  more  than  Protestantism  ;  for  if  Lutherans  are 
divided  in  creed  from  Calvinists,  and  both  from 
Anglicans,  and  the  various  denominations  of  Dis- 
senters each  has  its  own  doctrine  and  its  own  inter- 
pretation, yet  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  Jesuits 
and  Jansenists,  have  had  their  quarrels  too.  Nay, 
that  at  this  moment  the  greate.-t  alienation,  rivalry, 
and  difference  of  opinion  exist  in  the  Catholic  priest-* 
hood,  so  that  the  Church  is  but  nominally  one,  and 
her  pretended  unity  resolves  itself  into  nothing  more 
specious  than  an  awkward  and  imperfect  uniformity. 
This  is  what  is  said;  and,  I  repeat,  my  answer  to  it 
cannot  contain  anything  either  new  or  important,  or 
even  satisfactory  to  myself.  However,  since  I  mutt 
enter  upon  the  subject,  I  must  make  the  best  of  it ; 
so  let  me  begin  with  an  extract  from  Jewel's  Apo-^ 
logy,  in  which  the  objection  is  to  be  found. 

"  Who  are  these,"  he  says,  "  that  find  fault  with 
dissensions  among  us  ?  Are  they  all  agreed  among 
themselves  ?  Hath  every  one  of  them  determined, 
to  his  own  satisfaction,  what  he  should  follow  ?  Have 
there  been  no  diff -rences,  no  disputes  amongst  them  ? 
Then  why  do  not  the  Scotists  and  the  Thomists 
come  to  a  more  perfect  agreement  touching  merit  of 


205 

Congruity  and  condignity,  touching  original  sin  ill 
the  blessed  Virgin,  and  the  obligations  of  simple  and 
solemn  vows?  Why  do  the  Canonists  affirm  auri- 
cular confession  to  be  of  human  and  positive,  and 
the  Schoolmen,  on  the  contrary,  maintain  that  it  is 
of  divine  right?  Why  does  Albcrtus  Pighins  differ 
from  Cajetan,  Thomas  Aquinas  from  Peter  Lom- 
bard, Scotus  from  Thomas  Aquinas,  Occham  from 
Scotus,  Peter  D'Ailly  from  Occham,  the  Nominalists 
from  the  Realists?  And,  not  to  mention  the  infinite 
dissensions  of  the  friars  and  monks,  (how  some  of 
them  place  their  holiness  in  the  eating  of  fi>h,  others 
in  herbs;  some  in  wearing  of  shoes,  others  in  san- 
dals; some  in  linen  garment-;,  others  ia  woollen  ? 
some  go  in  white,  some  in  black  ;  some  are  shaveil 
broader,  some  narrower  ;  some  shod,  some  barefoot ; 
some  girded,  others  ungirded,)  they  should  remember 
that  some  of  their  own  adherents  say,  that  the  body 
of  Christ  is  in  the  Lord's  Supper  naturally;  that 
others  again,  of  their  uwn  pasty,  teach  the  very 
reverse  :  that  there  are  some  who  affirm  that  the 
body  of  Christ  in  the  Holy  Communion  is  torn  and 
ground  with  our  teeth  ;  others  again  there  are  who 
deny  it:  that  there  are  some  who  say  that  the  body 
of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist  hath  quantity  ;  and  others 
again  deny  it :  that  there  are  some  who  say  that 
Christ  consecrated  the  bread  and  wine  by  the  espe- 
cial putting  forth  of  His  divine  power  ;  others,  that 
He   consecrated  in   the  benediction  :  some,  by  the 


206 

conceiving  the  five  words  in  His  mind ;  others,  by 
His  uttering  them :  others  there  are  who,  in  these 
five  words,  refer  the  demonstrative  pronoun  c  this' 
to  the  wheaten  bread ;  others,  to  what  they  call  an 
ikdividuum  vagum :  some  there  are  who  affirm  that 
dogs  and  mice  can  verily  and  truly  eat  the  body  of 
Christ;  others  there  are  who  do  not  hesitate  to  deny 
it :  some  there  are  who  say  that  the  very  accidents 
of  the  bread  and  wine  give  nourishment ;  others, 
that  the  substance  of  bread  and  wine  returns  after 
consecration.  And  why  should  we  bring  forward 
more  ?  It  would  be  only  tedious  and  burdensome 
to  enumerate  them  all ;  so  unsettled  and,  disputed  is 
yet  the  whole  form  of  these  men's  religion  and 
doctrine,  even  among  themselves,  from  whom  it 
sprang  and  proceeded.  For  scarcely  ever  are  they 
agreed  together,  unless,  as  of  old,  the  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees  were,  or  Herod  and  Pilate,  against 
Christ." 

It  is  equally  common  to  insist  upon  the  breaches 
of  charity  which  are  to  be  found  among  the  members 
of  the  Catholic  Church.  For  instance,  Leslie  says, 
"  If  you  have  not  unity  in  faith,  nor  in  those  prin- 
ciples and  practices  which  are  no  less  necessary  to 
salvation,  nor  in  that  love  and  charity  which  Christ 
has  made  the  characteristic  of  Christians,  and  without 
which  no  man  can  know  who  are  His  disciples  ;  but, 
instead  of  that,  if  you  have  envyings  and  strife 
among   you,    among  your   several  religious  orders, 


297 

betwixt  National  aucl  National  Church,  concerning 
tHe  infallibility  and  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  and  of 
his  power  to  depose  princes,  upon  which  the  peace 
and  unity  of  the  world  and  our  eternal  salvation 
does  depend ;  and,  in  short,  if  you  have  no  unity 
concerning  your  rule  of  faith  itself,  or  of  your 
practice,  what  will  the  unity  of  outward  communion 
do,  upon  which  you  lay  the  whole  stress?"*  Such 
is  the  retort,  by  which  Protestants  would  shelter 
from  our  attack  their  own  mutual  differences  and 
variations  in  matters  of  faith.  They  answer,  that 
differences  of  religious  opinion  and  that  dissensions 
are  found  within  the  Catholic  Church. 

Now  I  would  have  you  observe,  my  brethren,  that 
the  very  idea  of  the  Catholic  Church,  as  an  instru- 
ment of  supernatural  grace,  is  that  of  an  institution 
which  innovates  upon,  or  rather  superadds  to  nature. 
She  does  something  for  nature,  above,  beyond,  or 
against  nature.  When,  then,  it  is  said  that  she 
makes  her  members  one,  this  implies  that  by  nature 
they  are  not  one,  and  would  not  be  one.  Viewed  in 
themselves,  the  children  of  the  Church  are  not  of  a 
different  nature  from  the  Protestants  around  them  ; 
they  are  of  the  very  same  nature.  What  Protes- 
tants are,  such  would  they  be,  but  for  the  Church 
which  brings  them  together  forcibly,  and  binds  them 
into  one  by  her  authority.     Left  to  himself,  each 


Works,  1832,  vol.  iii.  p.  171. 

13* 


2D* 

Catholic  likes  aud  would  maintain  his  own  opiuioii 
and  his  private  judgment  just  as  much  as  a  Protes- 
tant ;  and  he  has  it,  and  maintains  it)  just  so  far  as 
the  Church  does  not,  by  the  authority  of  revelation, 
supersede  it.  The  very  niOment  the  Church  ceases 
to  speak,  at  the  very  point  at  which  she,  that  is,  God 
Who  speaks  by  her,  circumscribes  her  1  ange  of  teach- 
ing, there  private  judgment  of  necessity  starts  up; 
there  is  nothing  to  hinder  it.  The  intellect  of  man 
is  active  and  independent ;  he  forms  opinions  about 
everything  ;  he  feels  no  deference  for  another's 
opinion,  except  in  proportion  as  he  thinks  that  that 
Other  is  more  likely  than  he  to  be  right;  and  he 
tiever  absolutely  sacrifices  his  own  opinion,  except 
when  he  is  sure  that  that  other  knows  for  certain. 
He  is  sure  that  God  knows  j  therefore  he  sacrifices 
nis  opinion  to  God  speaking  through  His  Church. 
But,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  there  is  nothing 
to  hinder  his  having  his  own  opinion,  and  expressing 
it,  whenever  the  Church,  the  oracle  of  revelation^ 
does  not  speak.  But  again,  hunlan  nature  likes, 
hot  only  its  own  opinion,  but  its  own  way,  and  will 
have  it  whenever  it  can,  except  when  hindered  by 
physical  Or  moral  restraint.  So  far  forth  then,  as 
the  Church,  does  not  compel  her  children  to  do  one 
and  the  same  thing,  (as,  for  instance,  to  abstain  from 
work  on  Sunday  and  from  flesh  on  Friday,)  they  wil 
do  different  things;  and  still  more  so  when  she 
actually  allows  or  commissions  them  to  act  for  them- 


Helves,  gives  to  certain  persons  or  bodies  privileges 
and  immunities,  and  recognizes  them  as  centres  of 
'combination,  under  her  authority  and  within  her 
mle.  And  further  still,  in  all  subjects  and  respects 
whatever,  whether  in  that  raDge  of  opinion  and  of 
action  which  the  Church  Las  claimed  to  herself,  and 
where  she  has  superseded  what  is  private  and  indi- 
vidual, or,  on  the  other  hand,  in  those  larger  regions 
of  thought  and  of  conduct,  as  to  which  she  has  not 
spoken,  though  she  might  speak,  the  natural  tendency 
of  the  children  of  the  Church,  as  men,  is  to  resist 
her  authority.  Each  mind  naturally  is  self-willed, 
self-dependent,  self-opiniated;  and,  except  so  far  as 
grace  has  subdued  it,  its  first  impulse  is  One  of  re- 
bellion. Now  this  tendency,  through  the  influence 
of  grace,  is  not  often  exhibited  in  matters  of  faith? 
for  it  would  be  incipient  heresy,  and  would  be  Con- 
trary, if  knowingly  indulged,  to  the  first  element  of 
Catholic  duty ;  but  in  matters  of  conduct,  of  ritual-, 
of  discipline,  of  politics,  of  social  life,  in  the  ten 
thousand  questions  which  the  Church  has  not  fo:- 
mally  answered,  even  though  she  has  intimated  her 
.judgment,  there  is  a  con-taut  rising  of  the  human 
mind  against  the  authority  of  the  Church  and  (f 
superiors,  and  that,  iu  proportion  as  each  individual 
is  removed  from  perfection.  For  all  these  reasons, 
there  ever  has  been,  and  ever  will  be,  a  vast  exerci.e 
•and  realized  product,  partly  praiseworthy,  partly 
barely  lawful,  of  private  judgment  within  the  Catho*- 


300 

lie  Church.  The  freedom  of  the  human  mind  i» 
"in  possession,"  and  it  meddles  with  every  question, 
and  wanders  over  heaven  and  earth,  except  so  far 
as  the  authority  of  the  divine  word,  as  a  superin- 
cumbent weight,  presses  it  down,  and  restrains  it 
within  limits. 

Now,  the  most  obvious  instance  of  this  libeity  or 
licence  in  the  Church  is  that  of  nationality ;  and  I 
do  not  understand  why  it  has  not  been  urged  in  the 
controversy  more  prominently  than  the  mere  rivalry 
and  party-spirit  of  monastic  bodies.  Yet  what  a 
vast  assemblage  of  private  feeling,  judgment,  taste, 
and  tradition  goes  to  make  up  the  idea  of  nation- 
ality !  yet  there  it  exists  in  the  Church,  because  the 
Church  has  not  been  divinely  instructed  to  forbid  it, 
and  it  fights  against  the  Church  and  the  Church's 
objects,  except  where  the  Church  authoritatively 
repels  it.  The  Church  is  a  preacher  of  p.ace,  anl 
nationality  is  the  fruitful  cause  of  quarrels  far  more 
sinful  and  destructive  than  the  paper  wars  and 
rivalry  of  customs  or  precedents,  which  alone  can 
possibly  exist  between  religious  bodies.  The  Church 
grants  to  the  magistrate  the  power  of  the  sword,  and 
the  right  of  making  war  in  a  lawful  quarrel,  and 
nations  abuse  this  prerogative  to  break  up  that  unity 
of  love  which  ought  to  exist  in  the  baptized  servants 
of  a  common  Master,  and  to  put  to  death  by  whole- 
sale those  whom  they  expect  to  live  with  for  ever  in 
heaven.     This,  I  say,  might  be  urged  iu  controveisy 


301 

against  Catholicism,  as  an  extreme  instance  of  the 
want  of  unity  in  the  Church ;  and  yet,  when  pro- 
perly considered,  it  is  rather  a  special  instance,  I  do 
not  say  of  her  unity,  but  of  her  uniting  power. 
She  fights  the  battle  of  unity,  and  she  wins.  Look 
through  her  history,  and  you  cannot  deny  but  she  is 
the  one  great  principle  of  unity  and  concord  which 
the  world  has  seen.  In  this  day,  I  grant,  scientific 
unions,  free  trade,  railroads,  and  industrial  exhibi- 
tions are  put  forward  as  a  substitute  for  her  influ- 
ence ;  with  what  success  posterity  will  be  able  to 
judge  ;  but,  as  far  as  the  course  of  history  has  yet 
proceeded,  the  Church  is  the  only  power  that  has 
wrestled,  as  with  the  concupiscence,  so  with  the 
pride,  irritability,  selfishness,  and  self-love  of  human 
nature.  Her  annals  present  a  series  of  victories 
over  that  human  nature,  which  is  the  subject-matter 
of  her  operations ;  and  to  object  to  her  that  she  has 
an  enemy  to  overcome  surely  would  be  a  most  per- 
verse view  of  the  case,  and  a  most  sophistical  argu- 
ment in  controversy.  The  barbarian  invaders  of  the 
empire  were  the  enemies  of  the  human  race  and  of 
each  other ;  and  to  subdue  and  unite  them,  and  to 
harness  them,  as  it  were,  to  her  triumphal  chariot  by 
her  look  and  by  her  voice,  was  an  exploit  of  moral 
power,  such  as  the  world  has  never  seen  elsewhere, 
buch,  too,  was  her  continual  arbitration  between  the 
fierce  feudal  monarchs  of  the  middle  ages;  which, 
though  not  always  successful  to  the  extent  of  her 


desire,  exhibits  her  most  signally  in  that  her  great 
and  heavenly  character  of  peacemaker,  and  vindi- 
cates for  her  the  attribute,  given  her  in  the  Creed, 
and  envied  her  by  her  enemies,  of  being  one. 

And  here  I  cannot  but  allude  to  the  subject  which 
employed  our  attention  yesterday ;  for,  be  it  for  good 
or  for  bad,  we  then  seemed  to  feel  beyond  contra- 
diction, that  one  and  the  same  character  was  to  be 
found  in  all  Catholic  nations,  in  north  and  south,  in 
the  middle  age  and  now.  I  repeat,  I  am  not  assu^ 
ming  that  this  common  character  is  admirable  and 
beautiful,  or  denying,  (as  far  as  this  argument  goes,) 
that  it  is  despicable  and  offensive ;  I  only  remind 
you  that  its  identity  everywhere  Was  taken  for 
granted ;  and  what  was  granted  by  us  to  our  own 
prejudice  then,  must  be  conceded  to  us  in  our  favor 
now.  Considering  the  wide  differences  in  nations 
and  in  times,  it  surely  is  very  remarkable  that  the 
Religious  character,  which  the  Catholic  Church  forms 
in  her  populations,  is  so  identical  as  it  is  found  to  be. 
Can,  indeed,  there  be  a  more  marvellous,  or  even 
awful,  instance  of  her  real  internal  unity,  than  that 
modern  Naples  should  be  like  medieval  England  ? 
and  if  we  do  not  see  the  same  character  more  than 
partially  developed  in  Ireland  at  this  moment,  is  not 
this  the  plain  reason,  that  the  nation  has  been  worn 
down  by  oppression,  not  allowed  to  be  joyous,  not 
allowed  to  be  natural,  as  little  capable  of  exhibiting 
human  nature  in  a  Catholic  medium,  as  primitive 
Christianity  while  it  lived  in  the  catacombs  ? 


After  considerations  such  as  these,  I  own  £  call 
Scarcely  treat  seriously  the  earnestness  with  which 
Protestant  controversialists  would  call  me  back  to 
contemplate  the  quarrels  and  jealousies  of  seculars 
and  regulars,  among  themselves  or  with  each  other  3. 
as  if  the  human  mind  were  not  at  all  times,  so  far 
as  it  is  left  to  itself,  selfish  and  exclusive,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  various  circumstances  under  which  it 
is  found  in  a  far- spreading  polity  or  association. 
When  Catholics  in  any  country  are  poor  or  few, 
each  religious  body,  each  college,  each  priest,  is 
tempted  to  do  his  utmost  for  himself,  at  the  expense 
of  every  one  else  ;  I  do  not  mean  for  his  temporal 
interests,  for  he  has  not  the  temptation,  but  for  the 
interests  of  his  own  mission  and  place,  and  of  his 
own  people.  He  has  to  build  his  chapel,  to  support 
his  school,  to  feed  his  poor ;  and  it  his  next-door 
neighbor  gets  the  start  of  him,  no  means  will  be 
left  for  himself.  Or  if  he  is  of  a  mendicant  order, 
he  feels  he  has  a  claim  on  the  alms  of  the  faithful, 
prior  to  a  religious  body  which  lives  on  endowments 
or  has  other  property ;  but  the  latter  has  lately  come 
to  the  country,  and  thinks  it  very  fair,  on  its  first 
start,  once  for  all  to  make  a  general  appeal,  without 
which  it  never  will  be  able  to  get  afloat.  All  par- 
ties, then,  are  naturally  led  to  look  out  for  them- 
selves in  the  first  instance  ;  and  this  state  of  mind 
may  easily  degenerate  into  a  jealousy  of  the  good 
fortune  or  prosperity  of  others.     And  then   again, 


304 

some  inen,  or  races  of  men,  are  more  sudden  in  their 
tempers  than  others,  or  individuals  may  be  deficient 
in  moral  training  or  refinement,  and  strangers  may 
mistake  for  a  real  dissension  what  is  nothing  moro 
than  momentary  and  transitory  collision. 

Or  again,  let  the  country  be  Catholic,  and  the 
Church  rich ;  then,  what  so  natural,  so  inevitable, 
taking  men  as  they  are,  as  that  large  and  widely- 
spread  and  powerful  congregations  or  orders,  high  in 
repute,  commanding  in  station,  famous  in  historical 
memories,  rich  in  saints,  proud  of  their  doctors  and 
of  schools  founded  on  their  tradition,  should  be  ex- 
posed to  the  various  infirmities  of  party-spirit, 
adhere  sensitively  and  obstinately  to  the  privileges 
they  possess,  or  to  the  doctrines  which  have  been 
their  watchwords,  disparage  others  and  wish  to  over- 
bear them,  and  provoke  the  interposition  of  authority 
to  put  an  end  to  the  disputes  which  they  have  ex- 
cited? I  should  be  curious  to  know  whether  there 
ever  was  a  case  when  two  Protestant  sects  or  parties 
found  any  umpire  at  all  in  a  question  of  opinion, 
except,  indeed,  the  strong  arm  of  the  law.  And,  in 
saying  all  this,  t  am  not  determining  the  fact  of 
such  quarrels  among  Catholics,  or  the  degree  to 
which  they  proceed ;  for,  as  in  former  Lectures,  I 
am  not  concerned  with  the  investigation  of  facts ;  I 
am  taking  for  granted  what  is  alleged  by  our  oppo- 
nents, and  is  antecedently  probable,  taking  human 
nature  as  it  is.     But,  in  truth,  you  might  far  better 


306 

allude  to  the  esprit  de  corps  and  rivalries  of  separate 
colleges  in  the  national  seats  of  learning  as  a  proof 
of  disunion  between  them,  and  assert  that  the  uni- 
versity is  not  one,  and  does  not  aot  as  one,  because 
its  colleges  differ,  than  assert  it  of  any  of  those  re- 
ligious bodies,  established  and  sanctioned  by  the 
Catholic  Church.  Tbe  very  same  parties,  who  have 
their  domestic  feuds  with  one  another,  will  defend 
their  common  faith  or  common  Mother  against  an 
external  foe;  but  when  did  the  Bishops  of  the  Es- 
tablishment ever  stand  by  the  Friends  or  the  Inde- 
pendents, or  the  Wesleyans  by  the  Baptists,  on  any 
one  point  of  doctrine,  with  a  unity  of  opinion,  in- 
telligent, positive,  and  exact  ?  You  recollect  the 
popular  story,  which  is  intended  to  exemplify  the 
supremacy  of  the  instinct  of  benevolence  over  re- 
ligious opinion.  It  is  supposed  to  be  one  o'clock  on 
Sunday,  and  a  number  of  congregations  are  pouring 
out,  their  devotions  being  over,  from  their  respective 
chapels  and  meeting-houses,  when  a  woman  is  taken 
ill  in  the  street.  The  sight  of  this  physical  cala- 
mity is  sufficient  to  supersede  all  other  considerations 
in  the  minds  of  the  beholders,  and  to  bind  together 
for  the  moment  the  most  bitter  opponents  in  the 
common  work  of  Christian  charity.  The  argument 
is  based  upon  the  assumption,  and  a  very  reasonable 
one,  that  the  differences  which  exist  between  man 
and  man  in  religious  matters,  far  from  disproving,  do 
but  illustrate  and  confirm  the  fact  of  the  participa- 


fcion  of  all  men  in  a  certain  natural  sentiment ;  and 
surely  the  case  is  the  same  as  regards  the  differences 
and  the  unanimity  of  the  religious  bodies  in  the 
Catholic  Church.  Augustinians,  Dominicans,  Fran- 
ciscans, Jesuits,  and  Carmelites  have  indeed  their 
respective  homes  and  schools  ;  but  they  have,  in 
spite  of  that,  a  common  school  and  a  common  homo 
in  their  Mother's  voice  and  their  Mother's  bosom  ; 
11  omnes  omnium  caritates  patria  una  coraplexa  est;'* 
but  Protestants  can  but  "agree  to  differ  "  Quar- 
rels, stopping  short  of  division,  do  but  prove  the 
strength  of  the  principle  of  combination ;  they  arc 
a  token  n  >t  of  the  langor  but  of  the  vigor  of  its 
life.  Surely  this  is  what  we  see  and  say  daily  as 
regards  the  working  of  the  British  constitution. 

But  we  have  not  yet  got  to  the  real  point  of  the 
question  which  lies  before  us:  you  allege  these  dif- 
ferences in  the  Catholic  Church,  my  brethren,  as  a 
reason  for  not  submitting  to  her  authority.  Now, 
in  order  to  ascertain  their  force  in  this  point  of  view, 
let  it  be  considered  that  the  primary  question,  with 
every  serious  inquirer,  is  the  question  of  salvation. 
I  am  speaking  to  those  who  feel  this  to  be  so;  not 
to  those  who  make  religion  a  sort  of  literature  or 
philosophy,  but  to  those  who  desire,  both  in  their 
creed  and  in  their  conduct,  to  approve  themselves 
to  their  Maker  and  to  save  their  souls.  This  being 
taken  for  granted,  it  immediately  follows  to  ask, 
"  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  V  and  "  who  is  to 


30? 

teach  me?'*  and  next,  can  Protestantism,  can  the 
National  Church  teach  me  ?  No,  is  the  answer  of 
common  sense,  for  this  simple  reason,  because  of  the 
variations  and  discordances  in  teaching  of  both  the 
one  and  the  other.  The  National  Church  is  no  guide 
into  the  truth,  because  no  one  knows  what  it  holds 
and  what  it  commands :  one  party  says  this,  and  a 
second  party  says  that,  and  a  third  says  neither  this 
nor  that.  I  must  seek  the  truth  then  elsewhere  ; 
and  then  the  question  follows,  Shall  I  seek  it  in  the 
communion  of  Rome?  In  answer,  this  objection  is 
instantly  made,  "  You  cannot  find  the  truth  in 
Home,  for  there  are  as  many  divisions  there  as  in 
the  national  communion."  Who  would  not  suppose 
the  objection  to  mean,  that  these  divisions  were  such 
as  to  make  it  difficult  or  impossible  to  ascertain  what 
it  was  that  the  Roman  communion  taught?  Who 
would  not  suppose  that  there  was  within  it  a  dif- 
ference of  creed  and  of  dogmatic  teaching?  whereas 
the  stato  of  the  case  is  just  the  reverse.  No  one 
can  pretend  that  the  quarrels  in  the  Catholic  Church 
are  questions  of  faith,  or  have  tended  in  any  way  to 
obscure  or  impair  what  she  declares  to  be  such,  and 
What  is  acknowledged  to  be  such  by  the  very  parties 
in  those  quarrels.  That  Dominicans  and  Francis- 
cans have  been  zealous  respectively  for  certain 
doctrinal  views,  over  and  above  the  declared  faith 
of  the  Church,  throws  no  doubt  upon  that  faith  ; 
how  does  it  follow  that  they  differ  in   questions  of 


faith,  because  they  differ  in  questions  not  of  faith  ? 
Rather,  I  would  say,  if  a  number  of  parties,  distinct 
from  each  other,  give  the  same  testimony,  their  dif- 
ferences do  but  strengthen  the  evidence  for  the 
truth  of  those  matters  in  which  they  all  are  agreed  ; 
and  the  greater  the  difference  the  more  remarkable 
is  the  unanimity.  The  question  is,  "Where  can  I 
be  taught,  who  cannot  be  taught  by  the  national 
communion,  because  it  does  not  teach?"  and  the 
Protestant  warning  runs,  "  Not  in  the  Catholic 
Church,  because  she,  in  spite  of  all  subordinate 
differences  among  her  members,  does  teach." 

In  truth,  she  not  only  teaches  in  spite  of  those 
differences,  but  she  has  ever  taught  by  means  of 
them.  Those  very  differences  on  further  points  have 
themselves  implied  and  brought  out  their  absolute 
faith  in  the  doctrines  which  are  previous  to  them. 
The  doctrines  of  faith  are  the  common  basis  of  the 
combatants,  the  ground  on  which  they  contend,  their 
ultimate  authority,  and  their  arbitrating  rule.  They 
are  assumed,  and  introduced,  and  commented  on,  and 
enforced,  in  every  stage  of  the  alternate  disputation  ; 
and  I  will  venture  to 'say,  that,  if  you  wish  to  get  a 
*good  view  of  the  unity,  consistency,  solidity,  and 
reality  of  Catholic  teaching,  your  best  way  is  to  get 
up  the  controversy  on  Grace,  or  on  the  Immaculate 
Conception.  No  one  can  do  so  without  acquiring  a 
mass  of  theological  knowledge,  and  sinking  in  his 
intellect  a  foundation   of  dogmatic  truth,  which  is 


309 

simply  antecedent  and  common  to  the  rival  schools, 
and  which  they  do  but  exhibit  and  elucidate.  To 
suppose  that  they  perplex  an  inquirer  or  a  convert 
is  to  fancy  that  litigation  destroys  the  principles  and 
the  science  of  law,  or  that  spelling  out  words  of  five 
syllables  makes  a  child  forget  his  alphabet.  On  the 
other  hand,  place  your  unfortunate  inquirer  between 
Luther  and  Calvin,  if  the  Holy  Eucharist  is  his 
subject ;  or,  if  he  is  determining  the  rule  of  faith, 
between  Bramhall  and  Chillingworth,  Bull  and 
Hoadley,  and  what  residuum  will  be  left,  when  you 
have  eliminated  the  contrarieties  ? 

It  is  imprudent  in  opponents  to  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion to  choose  for  their  attack  the  very  point  in 
which  it  is  strong.  As  truth  is  tried  by  error,  virtue 
by  temptation,  courage  by  opposition,  so  is  indi- 
viduality and  life  by  disturbance  and  disorder ;  and 
its  trial  is  its  evidence  The  long  history  of  Catho- 
licism is  but  a  co-ordinate  proof  of  its  essential 
unity.  I  suppose,  then,  that  Protestants  must  be 
considered  as  turning  to  bay  upon  their  pursuers, 
when  they  would  retort  upon  us  the  argument  availa- 
ble against  them  from  their  religious  variations. 
"  The  Romanist  must  admit,"  it  has  been  urged, 
"  that  the  state,  whether  of  the  Church  Catholic  or 
of  the  Roman  Church,  at  periods  before  or  during 
the  middle  ages,  was  such  as  to  bear  a  very  strong 
resemblance  to  the  picture  he  draws  of  our  own.  I 
do  not  speak  of  corruptions  in  life  and  morals  merely, 


310 

or  errors  of  individuals,  however  highly  exalted,  but 
of  the  general  disorganized  and  schismatical  state 
of  the  Church,  her  practical  abandonment  of  her 
spiritual  pretensions,  the  tyranny  exercise  1  over  her 
by  the  civil  power,  and  the  intimate  adherence  of 
the  worst  passions,  and  of  circumstantial  irregu- 
larities to  those  acts  which  are  vital  portions  of  her 
system."*  Such  is  the  imputation  ;  but  yet,  to  tell 
the  truth,  I  do  not  know  any  passages  in  her  history 
which  supply  so  awful  an  evidence  of  her  unity  and 
self-dependence,  or  so  luminous  a  contrast  to  An- 
glicanism or  other  Protestantism,  as  these  very 
anomalies  in  the  rule  and  tenor  of  her  course,  as  I 
have  already  observed,  and  shall  presently  show  by 
examples. 

Two  years  back,  when  European  society  was 
shaken  to  its  basis,  the  question  which  came  before 
us  was,  not  whether  this  or  that  nation  was  great, 
and  powerful,  and  able,  in  case  of  necessity,  to  go  to 
war  with  vigor  and  effect,  but  whether  it  could  hold 
together,  whether  it  possessed  that  internal  consis- 
tency, reality,  and  life,  which  made  it  one.  This 
was  the  question  asked  even  about  England  ;  it  was 
a  problem,  debated  before  it  could  be  tried,  settled 
distinctly  in  the  affirmative,  when  a  trial  was  granted. 
Much  as  we  might  have  confided  in  the  steadiness  of 
character,  good  sense,  reverence  for  law,  content- 


*  Proph.  Off.  p.  408. 


311 

ment,  and  political  discipline  of  our  people,  we  shall 
admit  that  there  was  an  evidence  laid  before  the 
world  of  our  national  stability,  after  April,  1848,  to 
which  no  mere  anticipation  was  equivalent.  No  one 
can  deny,  that,  fully  as  we  may  be  impressed  with 
the  security  of  Russia,  still  we  have  not  that  vivid 
impression  on  our  mind,  almost  on  our  senses,  of  the 
fact,  created  by  the  threat  and  the  failure  of  a  po- 
litical rising  in  England  at  the  date  I  have  men- 
tioned. And  sometimes  the  longer  is  the  trial,  and 
the  more  critical  the  contest,  as  in  the  instance  of 
the  civil  discords  of  ancient  Home,  the  greater  vigor 
and  the  more  obstinate  life  is  exhibited  by  the  nation 
and  state,  when  once  it  is  undeniably  victorious. 
As  external  enemies  do  not  prove  a  state  to  be  weak 
till  they  prevail  over  it,  so  rebellions  from  within 
may  but  prove  its  strength,  if  they  are  smitten  down 
and  extinguished.  Now  the  disorders  which  had 
afflicted  the  Church  have  just  had  this  office  assigned 
them  in  the  designs  of  Providence,  and  teach  us  this 
lesson.  They  have  but  assayed  what  may  be  called 
the  active  unity  and  integrating  virtue  to  the  see  of 
St.  Peter,  in  contrast  to  such  counterfeits  as  the 
Anglican  Church,  which,  set  up  in  unconditional 
surrender  to  the  nation,  has  never  been  able  to  resist 
the  tyranny  or  caprice  of  the  national  will.  The 
Establishment,  having  no  internal  principle  of  in- 
dividuality, except  what  it  borrows  from  the  nation, 
can  neither  expel  what  is  foreign  to  it,  nor  heal  its 


312 

wounds ;  the  Church,  a  living  body,  when  she  be- 
comes the  seat  of  a  malady  or  disorder,  tends  from 
the  first  to  the  eradication  of  it,  which  is  but  a  mat- 
ter of  time.  This  great  tact,  continually  occur* ing 
in  her  history,  I  will  briefly  illustrate  by  two  exam- 
ples, which  will  be  the  fairest  to  take,  from  the 
extraordinary  obstinacy  of  the  evil,  and  its  occa- 
sional promise  of  victory; — the  history  of  the  here- 
sies concerning  the  Incarnation,  and  the  history  of 
Jansenism.  Each  controversy  had  reference  to  a 
great  mystery  of  the  faith ;  in  each  every  inch  of 
the  ground  was  contested,  and  the  enemy  retired 
step  by  step,  or  at  least  from  post  to  post :  the  for- 
mer of  the  two  lasted  for  between  four  and  five 
hundred  years,  and  the  latter  nearly  two  hundred. 
As  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  the  mind 
of  man  is  naturally  impatient  of  whatever  it  cannot 
reduce  to  the  system  of  order  and  of  causation  to 
which  it  subjects  all  its  knowledge  ;  that  is,  of  what- 
ever is  mysterious  and  incomprehensible  :  no  wonder, 
then,  that  it  was  discontented  with  a  doctrine  so 
utterly  impossible  to  fathom  as  that  the  Almighty 
and  Eternal  became  man.  As  private  judgment  is 
ever  rising  up  against  revelation,  as  the  irascible  or 
the  concupiscible  principle  is  ever  insurgent  against 
reason,  so  there  was  a  most  determined  effort,  and 
(to  use  a  familiar  word)  set  against  this  capital  and 
vital  article  of  faith,  age  after  age,  on  the  part  of 
various    schools   of  opinion  all   over   Christendom. 


313 

They  differed,  and  indeed  were  almost  indifferent, 
how  the  mystery  was  to  be  disposed  of;  they  took 
up  opposite  theories  ;  they  were  antagonists  to  each 
other  :  but  go  it  must.  •  The  attack  came  upon  the 
Church,  not  on  this  side  or  that,  but  from  all  quarters 
at  once,  or  successively,  whether  in  the  field  of  spe- 
culation or  in  the  territory  of  the  Church,  and 
circled  round  the  Holy  See,  rallying  and  forming 
again  and  again  in  very  various  positions,  though 
beaten  back  for  a  time,  and  apparently  brought 
under.  It  was  a  very  difficult  fight ;  and,  till  the 
end  appeared,  which  was  not  till  after  many  genera- 
tions, it  had  been  easy  to  indulge  misgivings  whether 
it  would  ever  have  an  ending.  Let  us  fancy  an 
erudite  Nestorian  of  the  day  living  in  Seleucia,  be- 
yond the  limits  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  looking 
out  over  the  Euphrates  upon  the  battle  which  was 
waging  between  the  See  of  St.  Peter  and  the  subtle 
heresy  of  the  Monophysites,  through  so  protracted 
a  period ;  and  let  him  write  a  defence  of  his  own 
Communion  for  the  use  of  theological  students. 
Doubtless  he  would  have  used  that  long  contest  as  a 
decisive  argument  against  the  unity  and  purity  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  would  have  anticipated  the 
triumphant  words  of  a  learned  Anglican  divine, 
rashly  uttered  in  1838,  and  prudently  recalled  in 
1842,  with  reference  to  that  Jansenistic  controversy, 
which  I  reserve  for  my  second  example.  "  This 
verv  [Monophysite]  heresy,"  he  would  have  said, 
14 


"  has,  in  opposition  to  all  these  anathemas  and  con- 
demnations, and  in  spite  of  the  persecution  of  the 
temporal  powers,  continued  to  exist  for  nearly  [300} 
years;  and,  what  is  more,  it  has  existed  all  along  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  Roman  Church  itself.  Yes,  it 
has  perpetuated  itself  in  all  parts  of  that  Church, 
sometimes  covertly,  sometimes  openly,  exciting  un- 
easiness, tumults,  innovations,  reforms,  persecutions, 
schisms,  but  always  adhering  to  the  Roman  com- 
munion with  invincible  tenacity.  It  is  in  vain  that, 
sensible  of  so  great  an  evil,  the  Roman  Church 
struggles  and  resorts  to  every  expedient  to  free  her- 
self from  its  presence ;  the  loathed  and  abhorred 
heresy  perpetuates  itself  in  her  vitals,  and  infects 
her  bishops,  her  priests,  her  monks,  her  universities ; 
and,  depressed  for  a  time  by  the  arm  of  civil  power, 
gains  the  ascendancy  at  length,  influences  the  coun- 
sels of  kings,  ....  produces  religious  innovations 
of  the  most  extraordinary  character,  and  inflicts 
infinite  and  permanent  injury  and  disgrace  on  the 
eause  of  the  Roman  Church."* 

Such  was  the  phenomenon  which  Monophys'tes 
had  presented,  above  a  thousand  years  before  the 
fise  of  a  heresy,  which  this  author  seems  to  have 
fancied  the  first  instance  of  such  an  anomaly.  The 
controversy  began  amid  the  flourishing  schools  of 
Syria,  the  most  learned  quarter  of  Christendom;  it 


Palmer's  Essay  on  the  Church,  vol.  i.  p.  320, 


315 

extended  along  Asia  Minor  to  Greece  and  Constan- 
tinople ;  and  then  there  was  a  pause.  Suddenly  it 
broke  out  in  an  apparently  dissimilar  shape,  and 
with  a  new  beginning,  in  the  imperial  city ;  sum- 
moned its  adherents,  confederates,  and  partisans 
from  North  to  South,  came  into  collision  with  the 
Holy  See,  and  convulsed  the  Catholic  world.  Sub- 
dued for  a  while,  it  returned  to  what  was  very  like 
its  original  form  and  features,  and  reared  its  head  in 
Egypt  with  a  far  more  plausible  phraseology,  and  in 
a  far  more  promising  position.  There,  and  in  Syria, 
and  thence  through  the  whole  of  the  East,  supported 
by  the  emperors,  and  afterwards  by  the  Mahometans, 
it  sustained  itself  with  great  ingenuity,  inventing 
evasion  after  evasion,  and  throwing  itself  into  more 
and  more  subtle  formulas,  for  the  space  of  near 
three  hundred  years.  Lastly,  it  suddenly  appeared 
in  a  new  shape  and  in  a  final  effort,  four  hundred 
yearly  from  the  time  of  its  first  rise,  in  the  extreme 
West  of  Europe,  among  the  theologians  of  Spain  ; 
and  formed  matter  of  controversy  for  our  own 
Alcuin,  the  scholar  of  St.  Bede,  for  the  interposition 
of  Charlemagne,  and  the  labors  of  the  great  Council 
of  Frankfort.  It  is  impossible,  I  am  sure,  for  anyf 
one  patiently  to  read  the  history  of  this  series  of 
controversies,  whatever  may  be  his  personal  opinions, 
without  being  intimately  convinced  of  the  oneness  or 
identity  of  the  mind  which  lived  in  the  Catholic 
Church  through  that  long  period ;  which  baffled  the 


316 

artifices  and  sophistries  of  the  subtfest  intellects, 
was  proof  against  fear,  despondency,  and  temporal 
expedience,  and  succeeded  in  establishing  irrevocably 
and  for  ever  those  points  of  faith  with  which  she 
started  in  the  contest.  "  Any  one  false  st^p,"  it 
has  been  said,  "  would  have  thrown  the  whole  theory 
of  the  doctrine  into  irretrievable  confusion  ;  but  it 
was  as  if  some  one  individual  and  perspicacious  in- 
tellect, to  speak  humanly,  ruled  the  theological 
discussion  from  first  to  last.  That  in  the  long  course 
of  centuries,  and  in  spite  of  the  '  apparent'  failure, 
in  points  of  detail,  of  the  most  gifted  fathers  and 
saints,  the  Church  thus  wrought  out  the  one  and 
only  consistent  theory  which  can  be  formed  on  the 
great  doctrine  in  dispute,  proves  how  clear,  simple, 
and  exact  her  vision  of  that  doctrine  was."*  Now 
I  leave  the  retrospect  of  this  long  struggle  with  two 
remarks; — first,  that  it  was  never  doubtful  to  the 
world,  for  any»long  time,  what  was  the  decision  of 
authority  on  each  successive  question  as  it  came  into 
consideration ;  next,  that  the  series  of  doctrinal 
errors  which  was  evolved,  tended  from  the  first  to 
an  utter  overthrow,  each  decision  of  authority  being 
a  new  and  further  victory  over  it,  which  was  never 
undone.  It  was  all  along  in  visible  course  of  ex- 
pulsion from  the  Catholic  fold.  Contrast  this  with 
the  denial  of  baptismal  grace,  viewed  as  a  heresy 


*  Es9ay  on  Development,  p,  448, 


.  sir 

Within  the  Anglican  Church ;  has  the  sentiment  of 
authority  against  it  always  been  unquestionable  ? 
Has  there  been  a  series  of  victoiies  over  it?  Is  it 
in  visible  course  of  expulsion  ?  Is  it  ever  tending 
to  be  expelled?  Are  the  iufluence  and  the  p\os- 
pects  of  the  heresy  less  formidable  now  than  in  the 
age  of  Wesley,  or  of  Calamy,  or  of  Baxter,  or  of 
Abbot,  or  of  Cartwright,  or  of  the  Reformers  ? 

The  second  controversy  which  I  shall  mention  is 
one  not  so  remarkable  in  itself,  not  so  wide  in  its 
field  of  conflict,  nor  so  terrible  in  its  events,  but  more 
interesting  perhaps  to  us,  as  relating  almost  to  our 
own  times,  and  as  used  as  an  argument  against  the 
Church's  unity  and  power  of  enforcing  her  decisions, 
by  such  writers  as  the  theologian,  of  whose  words  I 
have  already  availed  myself.  For  the  better  part  of 
two  centuries  Jansenism  has  troubled  the  greater 
part  of  Catholic  Europe,  has  bad  great  successes) 
and  has  expected  greater  still;  yet*,  somehow  or 
other,  such  is  the  fact,  as  a  looker-on  would  be 
obliged  to  say,  whatever  be  its  internal  reasons,  of 
which  he  would  not  be  a  judge,  at  the  end  of  the 
time  you  look  for  it  and  it  is  gone.  As  fire  among 
the  stubble  threatens  great  things,  but  suddenly  is 
quenched  in  the  very  fulness  of  its  blaze,  so  has  it 
been  with  the  heresy  in  question.  One  might  have 
thought  that  an  age  like  this  had  been  especially 
favorable  for  the  development  of  many  of  its  pecu- 
liarities ;  one  never  should  be  surprised  if  it  developed 


3iS 

them.     The  heresy  almost  arose  with  Protestantism, 
and  kept  pace  with  it ;  it  extended  and  flourished 
in  those  Catholic   countries  on  which  Protestantism 
had  made  its  greatest  inroads,  and  it  grew  and  grew 
by  the  side  of  Protestantism ;  when  suddenly  it  is 
found  dead  in  France,  and  it  receives  its  death  blow 
in  Austria,  in  the  very  generation,  at  the  very  hour, 
when  Protestantism  is  at  length  getting  acknowledged 
possession  of  the  far-famed  communion  of  Laud  and 
Hammond. 
^  There  was  a  time  when  nearly  all  that  was  most 
gifted,  learned,  and  earnest  in  France,  seemed  cor- 
rupted by  the  heresy ;  which,    though    condemned 
again  and  again  by  the   Holy  See,   discovered  new 
subterfuges,  and  gained  to  itself  fresh  patrons  and 
protectors,  to   shelter   it  from  the  Apostolic   ban. 
What  circle  of  names  can  be  produced,   comparable 
in   their  times  for  the   combination   of  ability    and 
virtue,   of  depth  of  thought,  of  controversial  dex- 
terity, of  poetical  talent,  of  extensive  learning,  and 
of  religious  profession,  with  those  of  Launoy,  Pascal, 
Nicole,  Arnauld,   Racine,   Tilkmont,  Quesnel,  and 
their  co-religionists,  admirable  in  every  point,  but  in 
their  deficiency  in  the  primary  grace  of  a   creature, 
humility  ?     What  shall  we  say  to  the  prospects  of  a 
school  of  opinion,  which  was  influencing  so  many  of 
the  most  distinguished  Congregations  of  the  day ; 
and  which,  though  nobly  withstood  by  the  Society 
of  Jesus  and  the  Sulpicians,  yet  at  length  found  an 


'oritrance  among  the  learned  Benedictines  of  St, 
Maur,  and  had  already  sapped  the  faith  of  various 
members  of  another  body,  as  erudite  and  as  gifted 
as  they?  For  fifteen  years  a  Cardinal  Archbishop 
-of  Paris  was  its  protector  and  leader,  and  this  at  a 
distance  of  sixty  years  after  its  formal  condemnation. 
First,  the  book  itself  of  Jansenius  had  been  con- 
demned; and  then,  ia  consequence  ef  an  evasion, 
the  sense  of  the  book ;  and  then  a  controversy  arose 
whether  the  Church  could  decide  such  a  matter  ef 
fact  as  that  a  book  had  a  particular  sense.  And 
then  the  further  question  came  into  discussion,  whe- 
ther the  sense  was  to  be  condemned  with  the  mere 
intention  of  an  external  obedience,  or  with  an  in- 
ternal assent.  Eleven  bishops  of  France  interposed 
with  the  Pope  to  prevent  the  condemnation  ;  there 
were  four  who  required  nothing  more  of  their  clergy 
than  a  respectful  silence  on  the  subject  in  contro- 
versy ;  and  nineteen  wrote  to  the  Pope  in  favor  of 
these  four.  Before  these  difficulties  had  been  set- 
tled, a  fresh  preacher  of  the  same  doctrines  appeared 
in  the  person  of  Quesnel;  and  on  the  Pope's  con- 
demning his  opinions  in  the  famous  bull  Unigemtus, 
six  bishops  refused  to  publish  it,  and  fourteen  for- 
mally opposed  it ;  and  then  sixteen  suspended  the 
effects  of  it.  Three  universities  took  part  with 
them  and  the  parliaments  of  various  towns  banished 
their  Archbishops,  Bishops,  or  Priests,  and  conns- 


320 

eated  their  goods,  either  for  taking  part  against  the 
Jansenists  or  refusing  them  the  Sacraments.* 

As  time  went  on,  the  evil  spread  wider  and  gi  ew 
more  intense,  instead  of  being  relieved.  In  the 
middle  of  last  century,  a  hundred  years  after  the 
condemnation  of  the  heresy  at  Rome,  it  was  em- 
bodied in  the  person  of  a  far  more  efficacious  dis- 
putant than  Jansenius  or  Quesnel.  The  Emperor 
Joseph  developed  the  apparently  harmless  theories 
of  a  theological  school  in  the  practical  form  of  Eras- 
tianism.  He  prohibited  the  reception  of  the  famous 
bull  Unigenitus  in  his  dominions  ;  subjected  all  bulls, 
rescripts,  and  briefs  from  Rome  to  an  imperial  su- 
pervision ;  forbade  religious  orders  to  obey  foreign 
superiors ;  "  suppressed  confraternities,  abolished 
the  processions,  retrenched  festivals,  prescribed  the 
order  of  offices,  regulated  the  ceremonies,  the  num- 
ber of  masses,  the  manner  of  giving  benediction, 
nay  the  number  of  waxlights."f  He  seized  the 
revenues  of  the  bishops,  destroyed  their  sees,  and 
even  for  a  time  forbade  them  to  confer  orders.  He 
permitted  divorce  in  certain  cases,  and  removed 
images  from  the  churches.  The  new  Reformation 
reached  as  far  as  Belgium  on  the  one  hand,  and 
down  to  Naples  on  the  other.     The  whole  of  the 


*  Vide  Memoirespour  servir,  &c.  and  Palmer  on  the  Churcfo, 
t  Memoires  pour  servir,  &e. 


S2l 

Empire  and  its  alliances  were  apparently  on  tnS 
point  of  disowning  their  dependence  on  the  Apostolic 
See.  The  worship  of  the  saints,  auricular  confes- 
sion, indulgences,  and  other  Catholic  doctrines,  were 
openly  written  against  or  disputed  by  bishops  and 
professors.  The  Archduke  of  Tuscany,  imitating 
the  Emperor,  sent  catechisms  to  the  bishops,  and 
instructed  them  in  his  circulars  or  charges  ;  while  a 
Neapolitan  prelate,  instead  of  his  ordinary  title  of 
"  Bishop  by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Apostolic  See," 
styled  himself  "  Bishop  by  the  grace  of  the  king  " 
Who  would  not  have  thought  that  Henry  of  England 
had  risen  from  his  place,  and  was  at  once  in  Vienna, 
Belgium,  Tuscany,  and  Naples  ?  The  reforming 
views  had  spread  into  Portugal ;  and,  to  complete 
the  crisis,  the  great  antagonist  of  Protestantism, 
which  was  born  with  it  in  one  day,  and  had  ever 
since  been  the  best  champion  of  the  Holy  See,  the 
Society  of  Jesus  itself,  by  the  inscrutable  fiat  of 
Providence,  is,  in  that  hour  of  need,  to  avoid  wors9 
evils,  by  that  very  See  suppressed.  Surely  the  holy 
Roman  Church  is  at  length  in  the  agonies  of  disso- 
lution. The  Catholic  powers,  Germany,  Francej 
Portugal,  and  Naples,  all  have  turned  against  her. 
Who  is  to  defend  her?  The  mystery  of  Protes- 
tantism is  unravelled ;  the  day  of  Luther  is  come  $ 
the  Catholics  send  up  a  cry,  and  their  enemies  a 
shout  of  joy. 
Fret  not  thyself.  Is  it  not  written  in  the  book  of 
14* 


Mi 

i?\lih,  that  the  ungodly  shall  spread  abroad  like  a 
green  bay- tree,  and  then  shall  wither?  that  the  ad- 
versary reaches  out  his  hand  towards  his  prey,  and 
then  is  smitten  ?  "  Yet  a  little  while,  and  the  wicked 
shall  not  be :  I  passed  by,  and  lo !  he  was  not ;  I 
Sought  him,  and  his  place  was  not  found.  Better  is 
a  little  to  the  just  than  the  great  riches  of  the 
wicked ;  for  the  arms  of  the  wicked  shall  be  broken, 
but  the  Lord  strengtheneth  the  just."  So  was  it 
with  the  great  Arian  heresy,  which  the  civil  power 
would  fain  have  forced  upon  the  Church,  and  it  fell 
bo  pieces,  and  the  Church  remained  one.  So  was  it 
with  Nestoriu3,  with  Eutyches,  with  the  Image- 
breakers,  with  Manichees,  with  Lollards,  with  Pro- 
testants, into  whom  the  State  would  put  life,  but 
who,  one  and  all,  refused  to  live.  So  is  it  with  the 
communion  of  Cranmer  and  Parker,  which  is  kept 
together  only  by  the  heavy  hand  of  the  State,  and 
cannot  aspire  to  be  free  without  ceasing  to  be  one. 
One  power  alone  on  earth  has  the  gift  and  destiny 
of  ever  being  one.  It  has  been  so  of  old  time  5 
surely  so  will  it  be  now.  Man's  necessity  is  God's 
opportunity.  Noli  (Zmulari,  "  Ee  not  jealous." 
...  It  is  towards  the  end  of  the  century  :  what 
shall  be  ere  that  end  arrive  ?  .  .  .  Suddenly  there 
is  heard  a  rushing  noise,  borne  north  and  south  upon 
the  wings  of  the  wind.  Is  it  a  deluge  to  sweep  over 
the  earth,  and  to  bear  up  the  ark  of  God  upon  its 
bosom  ?  or  is  it  the  fire  which  is  ravaging  to  and 


6& 

fro,  to  try  every  man's  work  what  it  is,  and  to  dis- 
criminate between  what  is  of  earth  and  what  is  of 
heaven?  Now  we  shall  see  what  can  live  and  what 
must  die;  now  shall  we  have  the  proof  of  Jansen- 
ism ;  now  shall  we  see  whether  the  Catholic  Church 
has  that  internal  individuality  which  is  of  the  es- 
sence of  life,  or  whether  it  be  an  external  thing,  a 
birth  of  the  four  elements,  a  being  of  chance  and 
circumstance,  made  up  of  parts,  but  with  no  inte- 
grity or  immaterial  principle  stamped  upon  it.  The 
breath  of  the  Lord  is  gone  far  and  wide  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth;  the  very  foundations  of  society 
are  melting  in  the  fiery  flood  which  it  has  kindled  ; 
and  we  shall  see  whether  the  three  children  will  be 
able  to  walk  in  the  midst  of  the  furnace,  and  will 
come  forth  with  their  hair  unsinged,  their  garments 
whole,  and  their  skin  untainted  by  the  smell  of  fire. 
So  closed  the  last  century  upon  the  wondering 
world,  and  for  years  it  wondered  on  ;  wondered  what 
should  be  the  issue  of  the  awful  portent  which  it 
witnessed,  and  what  new  state  of  things  was  to  rise 
out  of  the  old.  The  Church  disappeared  before  its 
«yes  as  by  a  yawning  earthquake,  and  men  said  it 
was  a  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies,  and  they  sang  a 
hymn,  and  went  to  their  long  sleep,  content  and 
with  a  Nunc  Dimittis  in  their  mouths ;  for  now  at 
length  had  an  eld  superstition  been  wiped  off  from 
the  earth,  and  the  Pope  had  gone  his  way.  And 
other  powers,  kings,  and  the  like,  disappeared  too. 
and  nothing  was  to  be  se^n. 


324 

Fifty  years  have  passed  away  since  the  time  of 
those  wonders,  and  we,  ray  brethren,  behold  in  our 
degree  the  issue  of  what  our  fathers  could  but 
imagine.  Great  changes  surely  have  been  wrought, 
but  not  those  which  they  anticipated.  The  German 
Emperor  has  ceased  to  be ;  he  persecuted  the 
Church,  and  he  has  lost  his  place  of  pre-eminence. 
The  Gallican  Church,  too,  with  its  much -prized 
liberties,  and  its  fostered  heresy,  was  also  swept 
away,  and  its  time-honored  establishment  dissolved. 
Jansenism  is  no  more.  The  Church  lives,  the 
Apostolic  See  rules.  That  See  has  greater  ac- 
knowledged power  in  the  Church  than  ever  before, 
and  that  Church  has  a  wider  liberty  than  she  has 
had  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles.  The  faith  is 
extending  in  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  race,  its  recent 
enemy,  the  lord  of  the  world,  with  a  steadiness  and 
energy,  which  that  proud  people  fears,  yet  cannot 
resist.  Oat  of  the  ashes  of  the  ancient  Church  of 
France  has  sprung  a  new  hierarchy,  worthy  of  the 
name  and  the  history  of  that  great  nation,  as  fervent 
as  their  St.  Bernard,  and  as  tender  as  their  S&. 
Francis,  and  as  enterprising  as  their  St.  Louis,  and 
as  loyal  to  the  Holy  See  as  their  Charlemagne.  The 
Empire  has  rescinded  the  impious  regulations  of  the 
Emperor  Joseph,  and  has  commenced  the  emanci« 
pation  of  the  Church.  The  idea  and  the  genius  of 
Catholicism  has  triumphed  within  its  own  pale  with 
a  power  and  a  completeness  which  the  world  has 
never  seen  before.     Never  was  the  whole  body  of 


325 

the  faithful  so  united  to  each  other  and  to  theif 
head.  Never  was  there  a  time  when  there  was  less 
of  error,  heresy,  and  schisraatieal  perversenese 
among  them.  Of  course  the  time  will  never  be  in 
this  world,  when  trials  and  persecutions  shall  be  at 
an  end ;  and  doubtless  such  are  to  come,  even  though 
they  be  below  the  horizon.  But  we  may  be  thank- 
ful and  joyful  for  what  is  already  granted  us,  and 
nothing  which  is  to  be  can  destroy  the  mercies  which 
have  been. 

"  So  let  all  Thy  enemies  perish,  0  Lord  ;  but  let 
them  that  love  Thee,  shine,  as  the  sun  shineth  in  his 
rising !" 


LftCTUKE  XL 


HERETICAL   AND    SCHISMATICAL   BODIES    NO    PREJUDICE 
TO   THE   CATHOLICITY   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

There  is  no  objection  made  at  this  time  to  the 
claims  of  the  Catholic  Church  more  imposing  to  the 
Imagination,  yet  less  tenable  in  the  judgment  of 
reason,  than  that  which  is  grounded  on  there  being 
at  present  so  many  nations  and  races,  which  have 
kept  the  name  of  Christian,  yet  given  up  Catholi- 
cism. If  fecundity  has  ever  been  considered  one  of 
the  formal  notes  or  tokens  of  the  Mother  of  souls, 
it  is  fair  to  look  out  for  it  now ;  and,  if  it  has  told 
in  favor  of  the  communion  of  Home  in  former  times, 
so  now  it  must  surely  be  allowed  to  tell  against  it. 
It  would  seem  as  if  in  this  age  of  the  world  the 
whole  number  of  an ti- Catholics  were  nearly  equal 
to  the  number  of  Catholics,  at  least  so  our  oppo- 
nents say ;  and  I  am  willing,  for  argument's  sake, 
to  grant  it,  though  I  am  very  far  from  thinking  the 


327 

fact  is  so  myself.  But  let  it  be  so,  or,  in  other 
words,  let  it  be  assumed  that  scarcely  more  than 
half  of  Christendom  subjects  itself  to  the  Catholic 
Church.  "  Is  it  not  preposterous,  then,"  it  is  asked 
of  us,  "  to  claim  to  be  the  whole,  when  you  are  but 
a  moiety  ?  And  with  what  countenance  can  you 
demand  that  we  should  unhesitatingly  and  without 
delay  leave  our  own  communion  for  yours,  when 
there  is  so  little  to  show  at  first  sight  that  you  have 
more  pretensions  to  the  Christian  name  than  we  ?" 
This  is  the  argument,  put  in  its  broadest,  simplest 
shape,  and  you,  my  brethren,  would  like  to  avail 
yourselves  of  it  just  as  T  have  stated  it,  if  you  could, 
But  you  cannot ;  for  it  puts  together  all  creeds  and 
opinions,  all  communions,  whatever  their  origin  and 
history,  and  adds  up  the  number  of  their  members 
in  rivalry  of  that  of  the  Church's  children.  You 
would  do  so  if  you  could,  as  your  forefathers  did 
before  you  :  two  centuries  ago  Archbishop  Bramhall 
did  so  ;  and  you  have  every  good  wish  to  copy  him, 
as  in  his  other  representations,  so  in  this.  "  We 
hold  communion, "  he  says,  speaking  of  the  Church 
of  England  in  contrast  with  those  whom  he  would 
call  Eomanists,  "  with  thrice  so  many  Catholic 
Christians  as  they  do ;  that  is,  the  eastern,  southern 
and  northern  Christians,  besides  Protestants."* 
"  Divide  Christendom  into  five  parts,  and  in  four  of 


*  Vol.  i.  p.  628.    Ed.  1842, 


S28 

them  they  have  very  little  or  nothing  to  do.  Per- 
haps they  have  here  a  monastery,  or  there  a  small 
handful  of  proselytes ;  but  what  are  five  or  six  per- 
sons to  so  many  millions  of  Christian  souls,  that 
they  should  be  Catholics,  and  not  all  the  others  ?"* 
This  being  the  case,  as  he  views  the  matter,  it  of 
course  follows  that  we  are  but  successors  of  the 
ancient  Donatists,  a  mere  fraction  of  the  Church 
excommunicating  all  the  rest.  "  The  Donatists." 
he  says,  "  separated  the  whole  Catholic  Church 
from  their  communion,  and  substituted  themselves, 
being  but  a  small  part  of  the  Christian  world,  in  the 
place  of  the  Catholic  Church  ;  just  as  the  Romanists 
do  at  this  day."f 

This  certainly  was  turning  the  tables  against  his 
opponents,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  consider 
that  the  Church  of  England,  granting  it  was  a 
Church,  was  in  the  very  position  of  the  followers  of 
Donatus;  but  let  us  observe  what  he  is  forced  to  do 
to  make  his  argument  good.  First,  of  course,  he 
throws  himself  into  communion,  whether  they  will 
have  him  or  not,  not  only  with  the  Greek  Church, 
but  with  the  various  heretical  bodies  all  over  the 
East ;  the  Nestorians  of  Chaldasa,  the  Copts  of 
Egypt,  the  Jacobites  of  Syria,  and  the  Eutychians 
of  Armenia,  whose  heresy  in  consequence  he  finds 
it  most  expedient  to  doubt.     "  Those  Churches,"  he 

*    bid,  p.  253. 
t  Ibid,  p.  106, 


329 

says,  speaking  of  the  East,  "  do  agree  better,  both 
among  themselves  and  with  other  Churches,  than 
the  Roman  Church  itself;  both  in  profession  of 
faith,  for  tl  ey  and  we  do  generally  at  knowledge  the 
same  ancient  creeds,  and  no  other ;  and  in  inferior 
questions,  being  free  from  the  intricate  and  perplexed 

difficulties   of  the  Roman  schools How  are 

they  'heretical'  Churches?  Some  of  them  are 
called  Nestorians ;  but  most  injuriously,  who  have 
nothing  of  Nestorians  but  the  name.  Others  have 
been  suspected   of  Eutychianism,  and  yet  in  truth 

orthodox   enough It  is    no   new    thing  for 

great  quarrels  to  arise  from  mere  mistakes."*  Else- 
where he  says,  "  It  is  true  that  some  few  Eastern 
Christians,  in  comparison  of  those  innumerable 
multitudes,  are  called  Nestorians,  and  some  others, 
by  reason  of  some  unusual  expressions,  suspected 
of  Eutychianism,  but  both  most  wrongfully.  la 
this  the  requital  ihat  he,"  that  is,  his  Catholic  op- 
ponent, "  makes  to  so  many  of  these  poor  Christians, 
for  maintaining  their  religion  inviolated  so  many 
ages  under  Mahometan  princes  ?"{ 

Admitting,  as  he  does,  these  ancient  and  distant 
sectaries  to  have  a  portion  in  the  Catholic  faith  and 
communion,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  extends  a 
like  privilege  to  the  recently- formed  Protestant 
communities  in  his  own  neighborhood.     "  Because  I 


*  Ibid,  p.  260. 
t  Ibid,  p,  328, 


£30 

esteem  these  Churches  not  completely  formed,"  he 
says,  "  do  I  therefore  exclude  them  from  all  hope  of 
salvation  ?  or  esteem  them  aliens  and  strangers  from 
the  commonwealth  of  Israel?  or  account  them 
formal  schismatics  V  No  such  thing."*  "  I  know 
no  reason  why  we  should  not  admit  Greeks  and 
Lutherans  to  our  communion  ;  and  (if  he,"  that  is, 
his  opponent,  "  had  added  them),  Armenians,  Abys- 
senes,  Muscovites. f  .  .  .  For  the  Lutherans,  he 
does  them  egregious  wrong.  Throughout  the  king- 
doms of  Denmark  and  Sweden  they  have  their 
bishops,  name  and  thing;  and  throughout  Germany 
they  have  their  superintendents."! 

Such  was  the  line  of  argument  which  the  de- 
fenders of  the  National  Church  adopted  two  cen* 
turies  back ;  and  of  course  it  was  much  stronger  in 
the  way  of  argument  than  anything  which  is  at" 
tempted  now.  Now  the  Protestants  are  given  up  : 
we  hear  little  or  nothing  of  "Churches  not  com- 
pletely formed ;"  not  much  account  is  taken  of  the 
"  superintendents"  of  Germany ;  and  as  to  the 
episcopacy  of  Denmark  and   Sweden,  the  thing,  if 


*  Ibid,p  70. 

t  He  adds :  *  and  all  those  who  do  profess  the  Apostolical 
Creed,  as  it  is  expounded  in  the  first  four  general  councils  under 
the  primitive  discipline."  These  words  are  not  quoted  above, 
because  they  are  certainly  ambiguous.  Bramhall  does  not  say 
"  all  those  who  do  subscribe  the  decrees  of  the  first  four  genera 
councils." 

%  Ibid,  p.  5$4. 


not  the  name,  is  simply  gone.  Nor  would  any  ad- 
herent of  the  theological  party,  whom  I  am  address- 
ing, think  with  much  respect  either  of  the  Nestorians 
or  Monophysites  of  Asia  and  Africa.  The  anti- 
Catholic  bodies,  which  are  made  the  present  basis  of 
the  argument  against  us,  are  mainly  or  solely  the 
Greek  and  the  Anglican  communities ;  and,  as  the 
antiquity,  prescriptive  authority,  orders,  and  doc* 
trine  of  Anglicanism,  are  the  very  subject  is  dispute, 
it  is  usual  to  simplify  the  argument  by  resting  it 
upon  grounds  which  it  is  supposed  we  cannot  deny ; 
viz.,  the  pretensions  of  the  Greek  Church,  whose 
apostolical  descent  is  unquestionable,  and  whose 
faith  almost  unquestioned. 

The  argument,  then,  which  I  have  to  consider,  is 
an  appeal  to  the  imagination  of  the  followiug  kind  t 
The  Russian  Church,  according  to  the  statistical 
tables  of  1835,  includes  39,862,473  souls  within  its 
pale;*  the  Byzantine,  or  what  is  commonly  called 
the  Greek  Church,  is  said  to  number  about  three 
millions  ;|  so  that,  excluding  the  heretical  bodies, 
we  may  place  the  whole  Greek  communion,  from 
north  to  south,  at  about  forty- three  millions,!  with 
such  increase  of  population  as  in  the  last  fifteen 

*  Theiner,  L'Eglise  Russe,  1846. 

t  Conder,  View  of  Religions. 

t  In  controversial  writings,  the  numbers  of  the  Greek  or- 
thodox communion  are  put  at  seventy  or  even  ninety  millions  ; 
it  does  not  appear  on  what  data.  Cond  r  puts  them  at  fifty 
millions. 


332 

years  it  has  gained.  On  the  other  hand,  the  whole 
number  of  Catholics,  which  has  been  placed  by  some 
as  low  as  one  hundred  and  sixteen  millions,  is  con* 
sidered  by  Catholics  at  present  to  reach  two  hun- 
dred. But,  whatever  be  the  proportion  between  the 
Greeks  and  ourselves,  any  how  so  vast  a  communion 
as  one  of  forty- three  million  souls,  is  a  difficulty,  it 
is  said,  too  posirive  for  us  to  overcome.  It  seems 
incredible  that  we  can  have  exclusive  claims  to  be 
Christ's  heritage,  if  those  claims  issue  in  the  exclu- 
sion of  such  immense  populations  from  it ;  it  is  in- 
credible that  we  should  be  the  Catholic  Church,  if 
we  have  not  the  power  to  take  them  up  into  our 
system,  but  let  them  lie  in  their  own  place.  "  If 
the  Greeks  are  separate  from  the  See  of  Rome,"  it 
is  said,  "  as  we  see  they  are,  we  too  may  without 
hazard  be  separate  also.  They  are  too  powerful,  too 
numerous,  to  be  subjects  of  a  schism,  they  are  too 
large  a  limb  to  admit  of  amputation  ;  they  enter  into 
the  Church's  life  and  essence  ;  in  ejecting  them  from 
her  bosom,  she  is  tearing  out  herself;  in  excom- 
municating them,  you  rather  excommunicate  your- 
selves ;  you  are  affording  us  a  plain  reductio  ad 
absurdum  of  your  Catholicity  And  there  is  a 
second  consideration  which  urges  us,  and  that  is,  the 
frightful  cruelty  of  denying  to  such  multitudes  of 
men,  and  to  so  great  an  extent  of  territory,  a  place 
in  the  Church,  claiming  it  as  they  do  from  generation 
to  generation,   and  fully  believing  their  own  posses- 


333 

sion  of  it.  Charity,  still  more  than  the  necessities 
of  controversy,  obliges  you  to  acknowledge  them  as 
a  portion  of  the  fold  of  Christ." 

This  is  the  objection  which  I  am  to  examine,  and 
you  will  observe  that  I  am  to  examine  it  only  as  an 
objection ;  that  is  to  say,  I  am  supposing  it  proved 
sufficiently  on  other  grounds  that  the  communion  of 
Rome  is  the  Catholic  Church,  for  to  this  the  move- 
ment of  1833  has  already  been  supposed  to  lead ; 
and  then,  with  the  fact  sufficiently  proved,  this  ob- 
jection is  brought  as  an  obstacle  to  our  surrendering 
ourselves  to  the  conviction  which  follows.  What  I 
have  to  do,  then,  is  to  show,  that  the  proof  of  our 
Catholicity  is  not  affected  by  the  phenomenon  in 
question ;  or  that  there  are  ways  of  accounting  for 
it,  sufficient  to  quiet  our  imagination,  and  to  lead  us 
to  acquiesce  in  the  difficulty,  whatever  it  is,  on  the 
assumption  which  I  claim  to  make,  that  the  Church 
of  Rome  and  Catholicism  are  synonymous  terms. 

I  observe,  then,  that  it  is  but  one  instance  of  a 
great  phenomenon,  which  has  ever  been  on  earth, 
that  truth  should  be  opposed  by  some  pretence 
which  is  of  a  character  to  deceive  men  at  first  sight, 
and  to  confuse  the  evidence  of  what  alone  is  divine 
and  trustworthy.  Thus,  if  I  must  begin  from  the 
very  beginning,  the  enemy  of  man  did  not  overcome 
him  in  Paradise,  except  by  pretending  to  be  a  pro- 
phet, and,  as  it  were,  preaching  against  his  Maker. 
K  Ye  shall  not  die  the  death,"  he  said;  "  ye  shall 


334 

be  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil."  Again,  when 
Moses  displayed  his  miracles  before  Pharaoh,  Jannes 
and  Mambres  were  allowed  to  imitate  them,  in  order, 
so  to  speak,  to  give  the  king  a  pretext,  if  he  was 
perverse  enough  to  take  it,  for  rejecting  the  divine 
message.  When  the  same  great  prophet  had  led 
out  the  chosen  people  towards  the  promised  land, 
their  enemies  made  the  attempt  to  set  up  a  rival 
prophet  in  Balaam,  though  it  was  overruled,  as  in 
other  cases,  by  their  almighty  Protector.  When  a 
prophet  denounced  the  schism  of  Jeroboam,  there 
was  an  old  deceiver  who  seduced  him  by  the  claim, 
"I  also  am  a  prophet  like  unto  thee.,,  The  Temple 
had  not  long  been  built  before  a  rival  shrine  arose 
on  Mount  Grerizim,  with  the  very  object  of  per- 
plexing the  inquirer.  "  Our  fathers  adored  in  this 
mountain,"  says  the  Samaritan  woman  to  our  Lord, 
"  and  ye  say  that  at  Jerusalem  is  the  place  where 
men  must  adore."  And  He  warns  us  of  false 
Christs  and  Antichrists,  who  were  to  mislead  the 
many  with  the  imitation  of  His  claims;  and  His 
Apostles  were  resisted,  and  in  a  manner  thwarted, 
by  Simon  Magus,  and  others  who  set  up  against 
them.  They  themselves  distinctly  prophesied  this 
delusion  as  something  which  was  to  be,  and  ap- 
parently to  endure  till  the  end  of  all  things ;  so 
much  so,  that,  were  such  imposing  phenomena  as  the 
Greek  Church  taken  out  of  the  way,  it  will  be  diffi- 
cult to  say  how  the  state  of  things  would  correspond 


335 

to  the  apostolic  anticipations  of  it,  and  one  never 
should  be  surprised  to  find  its  rhetorical  effect  be- 
come more  practically  urgent  and  visibly  influential 
than  it  has  been.  "  After  my  departure,"  says  St. 
Paul,  "  ravenous  wolves  will  enter  in  among  you, 
not  sparing  the  flock.  And  of  your  own  selves  will 
rise  up  men  speaking  perverse  things,  to  draw  away 
disciples  after  them."  And  in  his  parting  words  he 
warns  us,  that  "  in  the  last  days  shall  come  danger- 
ous times,  for  men  shall  be  lovers  of  themselves  .  .  . 
having  an  appearance  indeed  of  piety,"  that  is,  of 
orthodoxy,  "  but  denying  the  power  thereof."  "  Evil 
men  and  seducers  shall  grow  worse  and  worse,  erring 
and  driving  into  error."  And  "  there  shall  be  a 
time  when  they  will  not  bear  sound  doctrine,  but 
according  to  their  own  desires  they  will  heap  to 
themselves  teachers  having  itching  errs."  I  need 
not  remind  you  that  St.  John  and  St.  Jude  bear  a 
similar  testimony,  which  the  event  in  no  long  time 
fulfilled. 

If  you  would  ask  me  for  the  most  remarkable  ful- 
filment of  their  warning,  I  should  point  to  Maho- 
metanism,  which  is  a  far  more  subtle  contrivance  of 
the  enemy  than  we  are  apt  to  consider.  In  the  first 
place,  it  perplexes  the  evidence  of  Christianity  just 
in  that  point  in  which  it  is  most  original  and  striking : 
I  mean,  it  professes  the  propagation  of  a  religion 
through  the  world,  which  I  suppose  was  quite  a  new 
idea  when   Christianity   appeared.     In   the   event, 


336 

indeed,  it  did  but  illustrate  the  divinity  of  Chris- 
tianity by  the  contrast ;  for  while  the  Catholic 
Church  is  a  proselyting  power,  as  her  enemies  con- 
fess, at  the  end  of  eighteen  centuries,  Mahometanism 
soon  got  tired  of  its  own  undertaking,  and  when  the 
novelty  and  excitement  of  conversion  were  over,  it 
relapsed  into  a  sort  of  conservative,  local,  national 
religion,  such  as  the  Greek  and  Latin  polytheisms 
before  it,  and  Protestantism  since.  And  next,  it 
acted  over  again,  as  if  in  mockery,  the  part  which 
Christianity  had  taken  towards  Judaism;  viz.,  it 
professed  to  be  an  improvement  on  the  Gospel,  as 
the  Gospel  had  been  upon  the  Law ;  and  just  as 
Christianity  dealt  with  Judaism,  it  pointed  to  the 
Christian  prophecies  in  evidence  of  its  own  claims, 
which  it  affected  to  interpret  better  than  Christians 
themselves.  Moreover,  it  swept  away  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  Christian  heritage ;  and  there  it  re- 
mains to  this  day  in  the  countries  which  it  seized 
upon,  lying  over  against  us,  and  for  this  reason  only 
not  interfering  with  tho  clearness  of  a  Protestant's 
conviction  of  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity,  that 
England  lies  north  and  Islamism  is  in  the  south. 
Then  again,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  Judaism  is 
somewhat  of  a  difficulty  of  the  same  kind  ;  not  as  if 
any  one  were  likely  to  prefer  it,  any  more  than 
Mahometanism,  to  Christianity ;  that  is  another 
matter  altogether ;  nor,  in  like  manner,  do  I  think 
that  any  of  you,  my  brethren,  would  turn  Greek 


337 

Father  than  become  Catbolic ;  but  I  mean,  that  as 
the  fact  of  the  Greek  Church  impairs  the  simplicity 
of  the  Catholic  argument,  by  the  preferment  of  a 
counter  authority,  so  does  the  existence  of  Judaism ; 
for,  compared  with  it,  Christianity  is  a  novelty ;  and 
it  may  be  said,  Do  not  stand  midway,  but  either  go 
on  to  some  newer  novelty,  such  as  first  Montanus, 
then  Manes,  and  then  Mahomet  introduced,  and 
others  since,  or  else  go  back  to  the  mother  of  all 
religions,  the  Jewish  Law,  which,  as  you  yourselves 
allow,  once  was  a  prophet  of  God.  On  the  other 
hand,  even  if  we  became  Jews,  as  considering  Juda- 
ism to  be  the  permanent  religion  which  God  has 
given,  still  this  would  not  get  rid  of  the  difficulty  I 
am  describing  ;  for  the  proper  claims  of  Christianity 
would  remain;  then,  as  now,  you  would  have  two 
rival  prophets,  one  true,  and  one  not  true,  though 
you  would  have  changed  your  mind,  as  to  which  was 
true  and  which  was  false.  Looking,  then,  at  the 
world  as  it  is,  taking  facts  as  they  are,  you  cannot 
rid  yourselves  of  difficulties  in  the  evidence  of  reli- 
gion, arising  from  the  existence  of  bold,  plausible, 
imposing  counter-claims  on  the  part  of  error,  such 
as  the  Greek  communion  makes  against  Catholicism; 
and  you  must  reconcile  yourselves  to  them,  unless 
you  are  content  to  believe  nothing,  and  give  up  the 
pretension  of  faith  altogether. 

But  we  need  not  go  to  Judaism  or  Mahometanism 
for  parallels  to  the  Greek  Church ;  look  at  the  his- 
15 


338 

tory  of  the  Christian  Church  herself,  and  you  will 
find  precedents  in  former  times,  more  exact  and 
apposite  than  any  which  can  be  brought  against  her 
from  without.  It  may  be  observed  that  the  Apostle, 
in  the  passage  already  quoted,  speaks  of  the  sects 
and  persuasions,  whom  by  implication  he  condemns, 
not  merely  as  collateral  and  independent  creations, 
but  as  born  in  the  Catholic  body,  and  going  out 
from  it.  "  Of  your  own  selves  shall  men  arise ;" 
and  St.  John  says,  "  They  went  out  from  us,  but 
they  were  not  of  us ;  for,  if  they  had  been  of  us, 
they  would  no  doubt  have  continued  with  us."  If 
this  was  not  fulfilled  in  the  very  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles, on  the  extensive  scale  on  which  it  was  after- 
wards, this  was  simply  because  large  national 
conversions  and  serious  schisms  are  not  the  growth 
of  a  day ;  but,  as  far  as  it  could  exist  in  the  first 
ages,  it  has  existed  from  the  very  first,  and  far  more 
strikingly  in  the  succeeding  centuries  of  the  Church. 
From  the  first,  the  Church  was  but  one  communion 
among  many  which  bore  the  name  of  Christian,  some 
of  them  more  learned,  and  others  affecting  a  greater 
Strictness  than  herself;  till  at  length  her  note  of 
Catholicity  was  for  a  while  gathered  up  and  fulfilled 
simply  in  the  name  of  Catholic,  rather  than  was  a 
property  visibly  peculiar  to  herself  and  none  but 
her.  Hence  the  famous  advice  of  the  Fathers,  that 
if  one  of  the  faithful  went  to  a  strange  city,  he 
should  not  ask  for  the  "  Church,"  for  there  were  so 


339 


many  churches  belonging  to  different  denominations, 
that  he  would  be  sure  to  be  perplexed  and  mistake, 
but  for  the  Catholic  Church.  "  If  ever  thou  art 
sojourning  in  any  city,"  says  St.  Cyril,  "inquire  not 
simply  where  the  Lord's  House  is,  for  the  sects  also 
make  an  attempt  to  call  their  own  conventicles 
houses  of  the  Lord,  not  merely  where  the  Church  is, 
but  where  is  the  Catholic  Church."  St.  Cyril 
wrote  in  Palestine ;  but  St.  Austin  in  Africa,  and 
St.  Pacian  in  Spain,  say  the  same  thing.  The  pre- 
sent Greek  Church  is  at  best  but  a  local  form  of 
religion,  and  does  not  pretend  to  occupy  the  earth ; 
but  some  of  the  early  heretical  bodies  might  almost 
have  disputed  with  the  See  of  St.  Peter  the  pre- 
rogative of  Catholicity.  The  stern  discipline  of  the 
Novatians  extended  from  Rome  to  Scythia,  to  Asia 
Minor,  to  Alexandria,  to  Africa,  and  to  Spain ; 
while,  at  an  earlier  date,  the  families  of  Gnosticism 
had  gone  forth  over  the  face  of  the  world  from  Italy 
to  Persia  and  Egypt  on  the  east,  to  Africa  on  the 
south,  to  Spain  on  the  west,  and  to  Gaul  on  the 
north. 

But  you  will  say,  there  were,  in  those  times,  no 
national  heresies  or  schisms,  which  alone  can  be 
considered  parallel  to  the  case  of  the  Greek  Church, 
supposing  it  schismatical ; — turn  then  to  the  history 
of  the  Gothic  race.  This  great  people,  in  all  its 
separate  tribes,  received  Christianity  from  Arian 
preachers ;    and  before   it   took  possession  of  the 


340 

empire,  Mgesogoths,  Visigoths,  Ostrogoths,  Alani, 
Suevi,  Vandals,  and  Burgundians,  had  all  learned  to 
deny  the  divinity  of  Christ.  Suddenly  Fiance, 
Spain,  Portugal,  Africa,  and  Italy  found  themselves 
buried  under  tbe  weight  of  heretical  establishments 
and  populations.  This  state  of  things  lasted  for  eighty 
years  in  France,  for  a  hundred  in  Italy  and  Africa, 
and  for  a  hundred  and  eighty  in  Spain,  extending 
through  a  space  of  two  centuries.  It  should  be 
added  that  these  Gothic  hordes,  which  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Empire,  had  little  of  the  character  of 
barbarism,  except  the  vice  of  cruelty;  they  were 
chaste,  temperate,  just,  and  devout,  and  some  of 
their  princes  were  men  of  ability,  and  patrons  of 
learning.  Did  you  live  in  that  day,  my  brethren, 
you  would  perhaps  be  looking  with  admiration  at 
these  Arians,  as  now  at  the  Greeks ;  not  fr  m  love 
of  their  heresy,  but,  your  imagination  being  affected 
by  their  number,  power,  and  nobleness,  you  would 
try  to  make  out  that  they  really  did  hold  the  ortho- 
dox faith,  or  at  least  that  it  was  not  at  all  certain 
they  did  not,  though  certainly  they  denied  the 
Nicene  Creed,  against  which  they  had  been  preju- 
diced, and  anathematized  Athanasius,  from  defective 
knowledge  of  history.  You  would  have  used  the 
words  of  Bramhall,  quoted  above,  when  speaking 
of  later  families  of  heretics  : — "  How  are  they 
heretical  Churches  ?  some  of  them  are  called  Arians ; 
but  most  injuriously,  who  have  nothing  of  Arius,  but 


341 

the  name ;  others  have  been  suspected  of  Macede- 
nianisra,  and  yet  in  truth  orthodox  enough.  It  is 
no  new  thing  for  great  quarrels  to  arise  from  mere 
mistakes"  Bulk,  not  symmetry,  vastness,  not 
order,  show,  not  principle — I  fear  I  must  say  it,  my 
dear  brethren — these  are  your  tests  of  truth.  A 
century  earlier  than  the  Goths,  you  would  have  been 
enlarging  on  the  importance  of  the  Donatists.  "  Four 
hundred  sees!"  you  would  have  said;  "a  whole 
four  hundred  !  why  it  is  a  fifth  of  the  Episcopate  of 
Christendom.  Unchurch  them!  impossible!  we 
shall  excommunicate  ourselves  in  the  attempt." 

Still,  it  may  be  said,  I  have  produced  nothing  yet 
to  match  the  venerable  antiquity  and  the  authorita- 
tive traditions  of  the  Greek  Church,  which  is  coeval 
with  the  Apostles,  and  for  near  a  thousand  years  has 
been  in  its  present  theological  position,  and  which, 
since  its  separation  from  the  Holy  See,  has  been 
able,  as  is  alleged,  to  expand  itself  in  a  vast  heathen 
country,  which  it  has  converted  to  the  faith.  Such 
is  the  objection;  and,  as  to  the  facts  on  which  it  is 
built,  as  before,  I  will  take  them  for  granted,  for 
argument's  sake,  for  any  how  they  are  not  sufficient 
to  make  it  sound.  For  in  truth,  whether  the  facts 
be  as  represented  or  not,  you  will  find  them  all,  and 
more  than  them  all,  in  the  remarkable  history  of  the 
Nestorians.  The  tenet  on  which  these  religionists 
separated  from  the  See  of  Rome  is  traceable  to 
Antioch,  the  very  birth- place  of  the  Christian  name ; 


342 

and  it  was  taken  up  and  maintained  by  Churches 
which  were  among  the  oldest  in  Christendom. 
Driven  by  the  Roman  power  over  the  boundaries  of 
the  Empire,  it  placed  itself,  as  early  as  the  fifth 
century,  under  the  protection  of  Persia,  and  laid  the 
foundations  of  a  schismatical  communion,  the  most 
wonderful  that  the  world  has  seen.  It  propagated 
itself,  both  among  Christians  and  pagans,  from 
Cyprus  to  China;  it  was  the  Christianity  of  Bac- 
trians,  Huns,  Medes,  and  Indians,  of  the  coast  of 
Malabar  and  Ceylon  on  the  south,  and  of  Tartary  on 
the  north.  This  ecclesiastical  dominion  lasted  for 
eight  centuries  and  more,  into  the  depth  of  the  mid- 
dle ages, — beyond  the  Pontificate  of  Innocent  III. 
It  was  administered  by  as  many  as  twenty-five 
archbishoprics;  and,  though  there  is  perhaps  no 
record  of  the  number  of  its  people,  yet  it  is  said 
that,  together  with  the  opposite  sect  of  the  Mono- 
physites  in  Syria  and  Egypt,  at  one  time  they  sur- 
passed in  populousness  the  whole  Catholic  Church 
in  its  Greek  and  Latin  divisions.  And  it  is  to  be 
observed,  which  is  much  to  the  purpose,  that  it  oc- 
cupied a  portion  of  the  world,  with  which,  as  far  as 
I  am  aware,  the  Catholic  Church,  during  those  many 
centuries,  interfered  very  little.  It  had  the  further 
Asia  all  to  itself,  from  Mesopotamia  to  China ;  far 
more  so,  than  the  Greek  Church  has  at  this  time 
possession  of  Russia,  and  Greece. 

With  this  prominent   example  before  our  eyes, 


543 

during  so  large  a  portion  of  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity, I  do  not  see  how  the  present  existence  of 
the  Greek  Church  can  form  any  valid  objection  to 
the  Catholicity  we  claim  for  the  communion  of  Rome. 
Nestorianism  came  from  Antioch,  the  original  Apos- 
tolic see;  Photianism,  as  it  has  been  called,  from 
Constantinople,  a  younger  metropolis.  Nestorianism 
had  its  Apostolical  succession,  as  Photianism,  and  a 
formed  hierarchy.  If  its  principal  seat  was  new  and 
foreign,  in  Chaldasa,  not  at  Antioch,  so  the  principal 
seat  of  Photianism  is  foreign  too,  being  Russia;  and 
from  Russia  it  has  sent  out  missions  and  made  conver- 
sions, so  did  Nestorianism,  and  much  more  so,  from 
Chaldrea.  You  will,  perhaps,  object  that  Nesto- 
rianism was  a  heresy ;  therein  lies  the  force  of  my 
argument,  vis.,  that  large,  organized,  flourishing, 
imposing  communions,  which  strike  the  imagination 
as  necessary  portions  of  the  heritage  of  Christ,  may 
nevertheless  in  fact  be  implicated  in  some  heresy, 
which,  in  the  judgment  of  reason,  invalidates  their 
claim.  If  the  Nestorian,  enormous  as  it  was,  was 
yet  external  to  the  Church,  why  must  the  Greek 
communion  be  within  it,  merely  because,  supposing 
the  fact  so,  it  has  some  portion  of  the  activity  and 
success  which  were  so  conspicuous  in  the  Nestorian 
missioners  ?  Do  not,  then,  think  to  overcome  us 
with  descriptions  of  the  multitude,  antiquity,  and 
continuance  of  the  Greek  Churches,  dismiss  the 
vision  of  their  rites,  their  processions,  or  their  vest- 


344 

merits,  spare  yourselves  the  recital  of  the  splendor 
of  their  churches,  or  the  venerable  aspect  of  their 
bishops  ;  Nestorianism  had  them  all : — the  question 
lies  deeper. 

It  lies,  for  what  we  know,  and  to  all  appearance, 
in  the  very  constitution  of  the  human  mind  ;  cor- 
ruptions of  the  Gospel  being  as  necessary  and  ordi- 
nary a  phenomenon,  taking  men  as  they  are,  as  its 
rejection.  Why  do  you  not  bring  against  us  the 
vast  unreclaimed  populations  of  paganism,  or  the 
political  power  of  the  British  colonial  empire,  in 
proof  that  we  are  not  a  Catholic  Church  ?  is  mis- 
belief a  greater  marvel  than  unbelief?  or  do  not  the 
same  intellectual  and  moral  principles,  which  load 
men  to  accept  nothing,  lead  them  also  to  accept  half, 
of  revealed  truth?  Both  effects  are  simple  mani- 
festations of  private  judgment  in  the  bad  sense  of 
the  phrase,  that  is,  of  the  use  of  one's  own  reason 
against  the  authority  of  God.  If  He  has  made  it  a 
duty  to  submit  to  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Holy 
See,  (and  of  this  I  am  assuming  there  is  fair  proof,) 
and  if  there  is  a  constant  rising  of  the  human  mind 
against  authority,  as  such,  however  legitimate,  the 
necessary  consequence  will  be  the  very  state  of 
things  we  see  before  our  eyes, — not  individuals 
merely,  casting  of?  the  Roman  supremacy,  (for  in- 
dividuals, as  being  of  less  account,  have  less  temp- 
tation, or  even  opportunity,  to  rebel,  than  collections 
of  men,)  but,  much  more,  the   powerful   and   the 


345 

gireafc,  tbe  wealthy  and  the  flourishing,  kings  an-! 
spates,  cities  and  races,  falling  back  upon  their  own 
resources  and  their  own  connexions,  making  their 
home  their  castle,  and  refusing  any  longer  to  be  de- 
pendent on  a  distant  centre,  or  to  regulate  their 
internal  affairs  by  a  foreign  tribunal.  Assuming 
then  that  there  is  a  supreme  See,  divinely  appointed^ 
in  the  midst  of  Christendom,  to  which  all  ought  to 
submit  and  be  united,  such  phenomena,  as  the 
Greek  Church  presents  at  this  day,  and  the  Nesto- 
rian  in  the  middle  ages,  are  its  infallible  correlative^ 
as  human  nature  is  constituted  :  it  would  require  a 
miracle  to  make  it  otherwise.  It  is  but  an  exempli- 
fication of  the  words  of  the  Apostle,  "  The  law 
entered  in,  that  sin  might  abound  ;"  and  again, 
!'  There  must  be  heresies,  that  they  also  who  aro 
proved,  may  be  made  manifest  among  you."  A 
command  i3  both  the  occasion  of  transgression  and 
the  test  of  obedience.  All  depends  on  the  fact  of 
the  supremacy  of  Rome;  I  assume  this  fact;  I 
admit  the  contrary  fact  of  the  Arian,  Nestorian,  and 
the  Greek  communions ;  and  strong  in  the  one,  I 
feel  no  difficulty  in  the  other.  Neither  Arian,  nor 
Nestorian,  nor  Greek  insubordination  is  any  true 
objection  to  the  fact  of  such  supremacy;  unless  the 
divine  foresight  of  such  a  necessary  result  can  be 
supposed  to  have  dissuaded  the  divine  wisdom  from 
giving  occasion  to  it. 

But  another  remark  is  in  place  here.     Nothing  is 
15* 


346 

tfiofe  to  be  expected  in  large  populations  of  Chris- 
tians, if  left  to  themselves,  than  a  material  instead 
of  a  formal  faith.  By  a  material  faith,  I  mean  that 
sort  of  habitual  belief,  which  persons  possess  in  con- 
sequence of  having  heard  things  said  in  this  or  that 
way  from  their  childhood,  being  thoroughly  familiar 
with  them,  and  never  having  had  difficulty  suggested 
to  them  from  without  or  within.  Such  is  the  sort 
of  belief  which  many  Protestants  have  in  the  Bible ; 
which  they  accept  without  a  doubt,  till  objections 
occur  to  them.  Such  as  this  becomes  the  faith  of 
nations  in  process  of  time,  where  a  clergy  is  negli* 
gent ;  it  becomes  simply  material  and  hereditary, 
the  truth  being  received,  but  not  on  the  authority 
of  Q-od.  That  is,  their  faith  is  but  material  not- 
formal,  and  really  has  neither  the  character  nor  the 
reward  of  that  grace-implanted,  grace-sustained 
principle,  which  believes,  not  merely  because  it  #as 
SO  taught  in  the  nursery,  but  because  God  has 
spoken ;  not  because  there  is  no  temptation  to  doubt, 
but  because  there  is  a  duty  to  believe.  And  thus  it 
may  easily  happen,  in  the  case  of  individuals,  that 
even  the  restless  mind  of  a  Protestant,  who  sets  the 
divine  will  before  him  in  his  thoughts  and  actions^ 
and  wishes  to  be  taught  and  wishes  to  believe,  may 
have  more  of  grace  in  it,  and  be  more  acceptable  in 
the  divine  sight,  than  his,  who  only  believes  pas* 
sively,  and  not  as  assenting  to  a  divine  oracle  ;  just 
Bfl  one  who  is  ever  fighting  successfully  with  temp- 


Ml 

fcations  against  purity  lias,  so  far,  a  claim  of  merit, 
which  they  do  not  share,  who  from  natural  tempera* 
ment  have  not  the  trial.  Now,  the  faultiness  of  this 
passive  state  of  mind  is  detected,  whenever  a  new 
definition  of  doctrine  is  promulgated  by  the  com- 
petent authority.  Its  immediate  tendency,  as  ex- 
hibited in  a  population,  will  be  to  resist  it,  simply 
because  it  is  new,  and  they  recognise  nothing  but 
what  is  familiar  to  them  ;  whereas  a  ready  and  easy 
acceptance  of  the  apparent  novelty,  and  a  cordial 
acquiescence  in  its  promulgation,  is  the  very  evi- 
dence of  a  mind,  which  has  lived,  not  merely  in 
certain  doctrines,  but  in  those  doctrines  as  revealed, 
not  simply  in  a  Creed,  but  in  its  Giver,  or,  in  other 
words,  which  has  lived  by  real  faith. 

As,  then,  heathens  are  tried  by  the  original 
preaching  of  the  Word,  so  are  Christians  by  recur- 
ring declarations  of  it;  and  the  same  habit  of  mind, 
which  makes  one  man  an  infidel,  when  he  was  before 
but  a  pagan,  makes  another  a  heretic,  who  before 
was  but  an  hereditary  or  national  Christian.  And 
surely  we  can  fancy  without  difficulty  the  circum- 
stances, in  which  a  people,  and  their  priesthood,  who 
ought  to  hinder  it,  may  gradually  fail  into  those 
heavy  and  sluggish  habits  of  mind,  in  which  faith 
is  but  material  and  obedience  mechanical,  and  re- 
ligion has  become  a  superstition  instead  of  a  rea- 
sonable service  ;  and  then  it  is  as  certain  that  they 
will  become   schismatics   or   heretics,   should   trb) 


34B 

eoine,  as  that  infidel  cities,  which  have  no  heart  (of 
the  truth,  when  it  is  for  the  first  time  preached  to 
thetn,  will  remain  in  their  infidelity.  It  is  much  to 
be  feared,  from  what  travellers  tell  us  of  the  Greek 
priesthood  and  their  flocks,  that  both  in  Russia  and 
in  Greece  Proper  they  are  very  much  in  this  state, — 
which  may  be  called  the  proper  disposition  towards 
heresy  and  schism ;  I  mean,  that  they  rely  on  thing.-* 
more  than  on  persons,  and  go  through  a  round  of 
duties  in  one  and  the  same  way,  because  they  are 
used  to  them,  and  because  in  consequence  they  are 
attached  to  them,  not  as  having  any  intelligent  faith 
in  a  divine  oracle  which  has  ordered  them ;  and  that 
in  consequence  they  would  start  in  irritation,  as  they 
have  started,  from  such  indications  of  that  oracle's 
existence  as  is  necessarily  implied  in  the  promulga- 
tion of  a  new  definition  of  faith. 

I  am  speaking  of  the  mass  of  the  population  ; 
and,  at  first  sight,  it  is  a  very  serious  question,  whe- 
ther the  population  can  be  said  to  be  simply  gifted 
with  divine  faith,  any  more  than  our  own  Protestant 
people :  yet  I  would  as  little  dare  to  deny  or  to 
limit  exceptions  to  this  remark,  as  I  would  deny 
them  or  limit  them  among  ourselves.  Let  there  be 
as  many,  as  there  can  be  found  tokens  of  there 
being ;  and  the  more  they  are,  to  God  the  greater 
praise  !  In  this  point  of  view  it  is  that  we  are  able 
to  take  comfort  even  from  the  contemplation  of  a 
country  which  is  givTen  up  whether  to  heresy  or 


340 

sdiisin.  Such  a  country  is  far  from  being  in  ihv 
miserable  state  of  a  heatlien  population :  it  has  por° 
tions  of  the  truth  remaining  in  it,  it  has  some  super- 
natural channels  of  grace  ;  and  the  results  are  such 
as  can  never  be  known  till  we  have  all  passed  out  of 
this  visible  scene  of  things,  and  the  accounts  of  the 
world  are  finally  made  up  for  the  last  tremendous 
day.  While  then  I  thiak  it  plain  that  the  existence 
of  large  anti-Catholic  bodies  professing  Christianity 
are  as  inevitable,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  as 
infidel  races  or  states,  except  under  some  extraor- 
dinary dispensation  of  divine  grace, — while  there 
must  ever  be  in  the  world  false  prophets  and  Anti- 
christs by  the  side  of  the  Catholic  Church, — yet  it 
is  consolatory  to  reflect  how  the  schism  or  heresy, 
which  the  self-will  of  a  monarch  or  a  generation  has 
caused,  does  not  suffice  altogether  to  destroy  the 
work  for  which  in  some  distant  age  Evangelists  have 
sacrificed  their  homes  and  martyrs  have  shed  their 
blood.  Thus,  the  blessing  is  inestimable  to  England, 
so  far  as  among  us  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism  is 
validly  administered  to  any  portion  of  the  popula- 
tion. In  Greece,  where  a  far  greater  attention  is 
paid  to  ritual  exactness,  the  whole  population  may 
be  considered  regenerate ;  half  the  children  born 
into  the  world  pass  from  a  schismatical  Church  to 
heaven,  and  in  many  of  the  rest  it  may  be  the  foun- 
dation of  a  supernatural  life,  which  is  gifted  with 
perseverance  in  the  hour  of  death.     There  may  be 


many,  who  being  in  invincible  ignorance  on  those 
points  of  religion  on  which  their  Church  is  wrong, 
may  have  the  divine  and  unclouded  illumination  of 
faith  on  those  numerous  points  on  which  it  is  right. 
And  further,  since  there  is  a  true  priesthood  there, 
and  a  true  sacrifice,  the  benefits  of  Mass  to  those 
who  never  had  the  means  of  knowing  better,  may 
be  almost  the  same  as  they  are  in  the  Catholic 
Church.  Humble  souls  who  come  in  faith  and  love 
to  the  heavenly  rite,  under  whatever  disadvantages 
from  the  faulty  discipline  of  their  communion,  may 
obtain,  as  well  as  we,  remission  of  such  sins  as  the 
Sacrifice  directly  effects,  and  that  supernatural 
charity  which  wipes  out  the  most  grievous.  More- 
over, when  the  Blessed  Sacrament  is  lifted  up,  they 
adore,  as  well  as  we,  the  true  Immaculate  Lamb  of 
God ;  and,  when  they  communicate,  it  is  the  True 
Bread  of  Life,  and  nothing  short  of  it,  which  they 
receive  for  the  eternal  health  of  their  souls. 

And  in  like  manner,  I  suppose,  as  regards  this 
eountry,  as  well  as  Greece  and  Russia,  we  may  en- 
tertain most  reasonable  hopes  that  vast  multitudes 
are  in  a  state  of  invincible  ignorance ;  so  that  those 
among  them  who  are  living  a  life  really  religious  and 
conscientious  may  be  looked  upon  with  interest  and 
even  pleasure,  though  a  mournful  pleasure,  in  the 
midst  of  the  pain  which  a  Catholic  feels  at  their 
ignorant  prejudices  against  what  he  knows  to  be  true. 
Among  the  most  bitter  railers  against  the  Church  in 


Ui 

this  country,  may  be  found  those  who  are  influenced 
by  divine  grace,  and  are  at  present  travelling  towards 
heaven,  whatever  be  their  ultimate  destiny.  Among 
the  most  irritable  disputants  against  the  Sacrifice  of 
the  Mass  or  Transubstantiation,  or  the  most  im- 
patient listeners  to  the  glories  of  Mary,  may  be  those 
for  whom  she  is  saying  to  her  Son,  what  He  said  on 
the  cross  to  His  Father,  "  Forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do."  Nay,  while  such  persons 
think  as  at  present,  they  are  bound  to  act  accord- 
ingly, and  only  so  far  to  connect  themselves  with  us 
as  their  conscience  allows.  "  When  persons  who 
have  been  brought  Up  in  heresy,"  says  a  Catholic 
theologian,  "  are  persuaded  from  their  childhood 
that  we  are  the  enemies  of  God's  word,  are  idolaters* 
pestilent*  deceivers,  and  therefore,  as  pests,  to  be 
avoided,  they  cannot,  while  this  persuasion  lasts^ 
hear  us  with  a  safe  conscience,  and  they  labor  under 
invincible  ignorance,  inasmuch  as  they  doubt  not 
that  they  are  in  a  good  way."* 

Nor  does  it  suffice,  in  order  to  throw  them  out  of 
this  irresponsible  state,  and  to  make  them  guilty  of 
their  ignorance,  that  there  are  means  actually  in 
their  power  of  getting  lid  of  it.  For  instance,  say 
they  have  no  conscientious  feeling  against  frequent- 
ing Catholic  chapels,  conversing  with  Catholics,  or 
reading  their  books ;  and  say  they  are  thrown  into 


Busenbaum,  vol.  i.  p.  54. 


352 

the  neighborhood  of  the  one  or  the  company  of  the 
ether,  and  do  not  avail  themselves  of  their  oppor- 
tunities ;  yet  they  do  not  become  responsible  for 
their  present  ignorace  till  such  time  as  they  actually 
feel  it,  till  a  doubt  crosses  them  upon  the  subject, 
and  the  thought  comes  upon  them,  that  inquiry  is  a 
duty.  And  thus  Protestants  may  be  Jiving  in  the 
midst  of  Catholic  light,  and  laboring  with  the  densest 
and  most  stupid  prejudices ;  and  yet  we  may  be  able 
to  view  them  with  hope,  though  with  anxiety,  with 
the  hope  that  the  question  has  never  occurred  to 
them,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  whether  we  are  not 
right  and  they  wrong'.  Nay,  I  will  say  something 
further  still :  they  may  be  so  circumstanced  that  it 
is  quite  certain  that,  in  course  of  time,  this  igno- 
rance will  be  removed,  and  doubt  will  be  suggested 
to  them,  and  the  necessity  of  inquiry  consequently 
imposed ;  and  according  to  our  best  judgment,  fal- 
lible of  course  as  it  is,  we  may  be  quite  certain  too> 
that,  when  that  time  comes,  they  will  refuse  to  in- 
quire and  will  quench  the  doubt ;  yet  should  it  so 
happen  that  they  are  cut  off  by  death  before  that 
time  has  arrived,  (I  am  putting  an  hypothetical  case,) 
we  may  have  as  good  hopes  of  their  salvation  as  if 
we  had  no  such  misgivings  on  our  mind;  for  there  is 
nothing  to  show  that  they  were  not  taken  away  on 
purpose,  in  order  that  their  ignorance  might  be  their 
excuse. 

As  to  the  prospect  of  those  countless  multitudes 


363 

of  a  country  like  this,  who  apparently  have  no  su- 
pernatural vision  of  the  next  world  at  all,  and  die 
without  fear  because  they  die  without  thought,  with 
these,  alas!  I  am  not  here  concerned.  But  the  re- 
marks I  have  been  making  suggest  much  of  com- 
fort, when  we  look  out  into  what  is  called  the  reli- 
gious world  m  all  its  varieties,  whether  it  be  the  High 
Church  section  or  the  Evangelical,  whether  it  be  in 
the  Establishment,  or  in  Methodism,  or  in  Dissent, 
so  far  as  there  seems  to  be  real  earnestness  and  in- 
vincible prejudice.  One  cannot  but  hope  that  that 
written  Word  of  God,  for  which  they  desire  to  be 
jealous,  though  exhibited  to  them  in  a  mutilated 
form  and  in  a  translation  unsanctioned  by  holy 
Church,  is  of  incalculable  blessing  to  their  souls, 
and  may  be,  through  God's  grace,  the  divine  instru- 
ment of  bringing  many  to  contrition  and  to  a  happy 
death  who  have  received  no  sacrament  since  they 
were  baptized  in  their  infancy.  One  cannot  but 
hope  that  the  Anglican  Prayer  Book,  with  its 
Psalter  and  Catholic  prayers,  even  though  in  the 
translation  they  have  passed  through  heretical  in- 
tellects, may  retain  so  much  of  its  old  virtue  as  to 
co-operate  with  divine  grace  in  the  instruction  and 
salvation  of  a  large  remnant.  In  these  and  many 
other  ways,  even  in  England,  and  much  more  in 
Greece,  the  difficulty  is  softened  which  is  presented 
to  the  imagination  by  the  view  of  such  large  popu- 
lations called  Christians,  but  not  Catholic  or  ortho- 
dox in  creed. 


3o4 

There  is  but  one  set  of  persons,  indeed,  who  in- 
spire the  Catholic  with  special  anxiety,  as  much  so 
as  the  open  sinner,  who  is  not  peculiar  to  any  com- 
munion, Catholic  or  schismatic,  and  who  does  not 
come  into  the  present  question.  There  is  one  set  of 
persons  in  whom  every  Catholic  must  feel  intense 
interest,  about  whom  he  must  feel  the  gravest  ap- 
prehensions ;  viz.,  those  who  have  some  rays  of  light 
vouchsafed  to  them  as  to  their  heresy  and  as  to  their 
schism,  and  who  seem  to  be  closing  their  eyes  upon 
it ;  or  those  who  have  actually  gained  a  clear  view 
of  the  nothingness  of  their  own  communion,  and  the 
reality  and  divinity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  yet 
delay  to  act  upon  their  knowledge.  You,  my  dear 
brethren,  are  in  a  very  different  state  from  those 
around  you.  You  are  called  by  the  inscrutable 
grace  of  G-od  to  a  great  benefit,  which  to  refuse  is 
to  be  lost.  You  cannot  be  as  others :  they  pursue 
their  own  way,  they  walk  over  this  wide  earth,  and 
see  nothing  wonderful  or  glorious  in  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  of  the  spiritual  heavens ;  or  they  have  an 
intellectual  sense  of  their  beauty,  but  no  feeling  of 
duty  or  of  love  towards  them ;  or  they  wish  to  love 
them,  but  think  they  ought  not,  lest  they  should  get 
a  dista-te  for  the  mire  and  foulness  which  is  their 
present  portion.  They  have  not  yet  had  the  call  to 
inquire,  and  to  seek,  and  to  pray  for  further  gui- 
dance, infused  into  their  hearts  by  the  gracious 
Spirit  of  God;  and  they  will  be  judged  according 
to  what  is  given  them,  not  by  what  is  not.     But  on 


355 

you  the  thought  has  dawned,  that  possibly  Catholi- 
cism may  be  true ;  you  have  doubted  the  safety  of 
your  present  position,  and  the  present  pardon  of 
your  sins,  and  the  completeness  of  your  present 
faith.  You,  by  means  of  that  very  system  in  which 
you  find  yourselves,  have  been  led  to  doubt  that 
system.  If  the  Mosaic  law,  given  from  above,  was 
a  schoolmaster  to  lead  souls  to  Christ,  much  more  is 
it  true  that  an  heretical  creed,  when  properly  under- 
stood, warns  us  against  itself,  and  frightens  us  from 
it,  and  is  forced  against  its  will  to  open  for  us  with 
its  own  hands  its  prison  gates,  and  to  show  us  the 
way  to  a  better  country.  So  has  it  been  with  you. 
You  set  out  in  simplicity  and  earnestness,  intending 
to  serve  it,  and  your  very  serving  taught  you  to  serve 
another.  You  began  to  use  its  prayers  and  act  upon 
its  rules,  and  they  did  but  witness  against  it,  and 
made  you  love  it,  not  more  but  less,  and  carried  off 
your  affections  to  one  whom  you  had  not  loved. 
The  more  you  gazed  upon  your  own  communion  the 
more  unlike  it  you  grew ;  the  more  you  tried  to  be 
good  Anglicans,  the  more  you  found  yourselves 
drawn  in  heart  and  spirit  to  the  Catholic  Church. 
It  was  the  destiny  of  the  false  prophetess  that  she 
could  not  keep  the  little  ones  who  devoted  them- 
selves to  her ;  and  the  more  simply  they  gave  up 
their  private  judgment  to  her,  the  more  sure  they 
were  of  being  thrown  off  by  her,  against  their  will, 
into  the  current  of  attraction  which  led  straight  to 


350 

the  true  Mother  of  their  souls.  So  month  has  gone 
on  after  mouth,  aud  year  after  year  ;  and  you  have 
again  and  again  vowed  obedieuce  to  your  own 
Church,  and  you  have  protested  against  those  who 
left  her,  and  you  have  thought  you  found  in  them 
what  you  liked  not,  and  you  have  prophesied  evil 
about  them  and  good  about  yourselves;  and  your 
plans  seemed  prospering  and  your  iufluence  extend- 
ing, and  great  things  were  to  be  ;  and  yet,  strange 
to  say,  at  the  end  of  the  time  you  have  found  your- 
selves steadily  advanced  in  the  direction  which  you 
feared,  and  never  were  nearer  to  the  promised  land 
than  you  are  now. 

0,  look  well  to  your  footing  that  you  slip  not ;  be 
very  much  afraid  lest  the  world  should  detain  you ; 
dare  not  in  anything  to  fall  short  of  God's  grace,  or 
to  lag  behind  when  that  grace  goes  forward.  Walk 
with  it,  co-op  'rate  with  it,  and  I  know  how  it  will 
end.  You  are  not  the  first  persons  who  have  trodden 
that  path ;  yet  a  little  time,  and,  please  God,  the 
bitter  shall  be  sweet  and  the  sweet  bitter,  and  you 
will  have  undergone  the  agony,  and  shall  be  lodged 
safely  in  the  true  home  of  your  souls  and  the  valley 
of  peace.  Yet  but  a  little  while,  and  you  will  look 
out  from  your  resting-place  upon  the  wanderers 
outside ;  and  wonder  they  do  not  see  the  way  which 
is  now  so  plain  to  you,  and  be  impatient  with  them 
that  they  do  not  come  on  faster.  And  whereas  you 
now  are  so  perplexed  in  mind  that  you  seem  to  your- 


357 

selves  to  believe  nothing,  then  you  will  be  so  full  of 
faith,  that  you  will  almost  see  invisible  mysteries, 
and  will  touch  the  threshold  of  eternity.  And  you 
will  be  so  full  of  joy  that  you  will  wish  all  around 
you  partakers  of  it,  as  if  for  your  own  relief :  and 
you  will  suddenly  be  filled  with  yearnings,  deep  and 
passionate,  for  the  salvation  of  those  dear  friends 
whom  you  have  outstripped ;  and  you  will  not  mind 
their  coolness,  or  stiffness,  or  distance,  or  constrained 
gravity,  for  the  love  you  bear  to  their  souls.  And 
though  they  will  not  hear  you,  you  will  address  your- 
selves to  those  who  will;  I  mean,  you  will  weary 
heaven  with  your  novenas  for  them,  and  you  will  be 
ever  getting  iMasses  for  their  conversion,  and  you 
will  go  to  communion  for  them,  and  you  will  not  rest 
till  the  bright  morning  comes,  and  they  are  yours 
once  again.  0  is  it  possible  that  there  is  a  resur- 
rection even  upon  earth  !  0,  wonderful  grace,  that 
there  should  be  a  joyful  meeting,  after  parting, 
before  we  get  to  heaven !  It  was  a  weary  time,  that 
long  suspense,  when  with  aching  hearts  we  stood  on 
the  brink  of  a  change,  and  it  was  like  death  to  wit- 
ness and  to  undergo,  when  first  one  and  then  an- 
other disappeared  from  the  eyes  of  their  fellows. 
And  then  friends  stood  on  different  sides  of  a  gulf, 
and  for  years  knew  nothing  of  each  other  or  their 
welfare  And  then  they  fancied  of  each  other  what 
was  not,  and  there  were  misunderstandings  and 
jealousies;  and   each  saw  the  other,  as  his  ghost, 


358 

only  in  imagination  and  in  memory;  and  all  was 
suspense,  and  anxiety,  and  hope  delayed,  and  ill- 
requited  care.  But  now  it  is  all  over ;  the  morning 
is  come ;  the  separate  shall  unite.  I  see  them,  as 
if  in  sight  of  me.  Look  at  us,  my  brethren,  from 
our  glorious  land ;  look  on  us  radiant  with  the  light 
cast  on  us  by  the  Saints  and  Angels  who  stand  over 
us ;  gaze  on  us  as  you  approach,  and  kindle  as  you 
gaze.  We  died,  you  thought  us  dead,  we  live ;  we 
cannot  return  to  you,  you  must  come  to  us, — and 
you  are  coming.  Do  not  your  hearts  beat  as  you 
approach  us  ?  Do  you  not  long  for  the  hour  which 
makes  us  one?  Do  not  tears  come  into  your  eyes 
at  the  thought  of  the  superabundant  mercy  of  your 
God? 

"  Sion,  the  city  of  our  strength,  a  Saviour,  a  wall 
and  a  bulwark  shall  be  set  therein.  Open  ye  the 
gates  and  let  the  just  Nation  that  keepeth  the  truth 
enter  in ;  the  old  error  is  passed  away ;  Thou  wilt 
keep  peace,  peace  because  we  have  hoped  in  Thee. 
In  the  way  of  Thy  judgments,  0  Lord,  we  have 
patiently  waited  for  Thee.  Thy  Name  and  Thy 
remembrance  are  the  desire  of  the  soul.  0  Lord 
our  God,  other  lords  beside  Thee  have  had  dominion 
over  us;  but  in  Thee  only  may  we  remember  Thy 
Name.  The  dead,  let  them  not  live ;  the  giants,  let 
them  not  rise  again  ;  therefore  thou  hast  visited  and 
destroyed  theao,  and  hast  destroyed  all  their  memory." 


LECTURE  XII. 


CHRISTIAN    HISTORY    NO    PREJUDICE    TO    THE 
APOSTOLICITY   OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Feeling,  my  dear  brethren,  I  should  be  encroaching 
on  your  patience  if  I  extended  this  course  of  Lec- 
tures beyond  the  length  which  it  is  now  reaching,  I 
have  been  obliged,  in  order  to  give  a  character  of 
completeness  to  the  whole,  to  omit  the  discussion  of 
subjects  which  I  would  fain  have  introduced,  and  to 
anticipate  others  which  I  would  rather  have  viewed 
in  another  connexion.  This  must  be  my  apology, 
if  in  their  number  and  selection  I  shall  in  any  re- 
spect disappoint  those  who  have  formed  their  ex- 
pectations of  what  I  was  to  do  in  these  Lectures, 
upon  the  profession  contained  in  their  general  title. 
I  have  done  what  my  limits  allowed  me  :  if  I  have 
not  done  more,  it  is  not,  I  assure  you,  from  having 
nothing  to  say, — for  there  are  many  questions  upon 
which  I  have  been  anxious  to  enter, — but  because  I 


360 

could  neither  expect  you,  my  brethren,  to  give  me 
more  of  your  time,  nor  could  command  my  own. 

As,  then,  I  have  already  considered  popular  ob- 
jections which  are  made  respectively  to  the  Sanctity 
Unity,  and  Catholicity  of  the  Church,  now  let  me, 
as  far  as  I  can  do  it  in  a  single  Lecture,  direct  your 
attention  to  a  difficulty  felt,  not  by  the  world 
at  large,  but  by  many  of  you  in  particular,  in  ad- 
mitting her  Apostolical  pretensions. 

I  say  "  a  difficulty  not  felt  by  the  world  at  large ;" 
for  the  world  at  large  has  no  ?uch  view  of  any  con- 
trariety between  the  Catholic  Church  of  to-day  and 
the  Catholic  Church  of  fifteen  hundred  years  ago,  as 
to  be  disposed  on  that  account  to  deny  our  Apos- 
tolical claims ;  rather,  it  is  the  fashion  of  the  mass 
ot  Protestants,  who  ever  think  on  the  subject,  to 
accuse  the  Church  of  the  Fathers  of  what  they  call 
Popish  superstition  and  intolerance;  and  some  have 
ev^n  gone  so  far  as  to  say,  that  in  these  respects 
that  early  Church  was  more  Popish  than  the  Papists 
themselves.  But  when,  leaving  this  first  look  of  the 
subject,  and  the  broad  outline,  and  the  general  im- 
pression, we  come  to  inspect  matters  more  narrowly, 
and  compare  them  exactly,  point  by  point,  together, 
certainly  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  various  instances 
of  discrepancy,  apparent  or  real,  important  or  trivial, 
between  the  modern  and  the  ancient  Church;  and 
though  no  candid  person  who  has  fairly  examined 
the  state  of  the  case  can   doubt  that,  if  we  differ 


861 

from  the  Fathers  in  a  few  things,  Protestants  diuvr 
in  all,  and  if  we  vary  from  them  in  accidentals  thi-y 
(Contradict  them  in  essentials,  still,  since  attack  is 
much  easier  and  pleasanter  than  defence,  it  has  been 
the  way  with  certain  disputants,  especially  of  the 
Anglican  school,  instead  of  accounting  for  their  own 
serious  departures  from  the  primitive  doctrine  and 
ritual,  to  call  upon  us  to  show  why  we  differ  at  all 
from  our  first  Fathers,  though  partially  and  intel- 
ligibly, in  matters  of  discipline  and  in  the  tone  of 
our  opinions  Thus  it  is  that  Jewel  tries  to  throw 
dust  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  does  his  best  to 
make  an  attack  upon  the  Papacy  and  its  claims  pass 
for  an  Apology  for  the  Church  of  England ;  and 
more  writers  have  followed  his  example  than  it  is 
worth  while,  or  indeed  possible,  to  enumerate.  And 
they  have  been  answered  again  and  again ;  and  the 
so  called  novelties  of  modern  Catholicism  have  been 
explained,  if  not  so  as  to  silence  all  opponents, 
(which  could  not  be  expected,)  yet  at  the  very 
lowest  as  far  as  this,  (which  is  all  that  is  incumbent 
on  us  in  controversy.)  as  far  as  to  show  that  we 
have  a  case  against  them.  I  say,  even  though  we 
bave  not  done  enough  for  our  proof,  we  have  done 
enough  for  our  argument,  as  the  world  will  allow ; 
for  on  our  assailants,  not  on  us,  lies  the  burden  of 
proof,  and  they  have  done  nothing  till  they  have 
actually  made  their  charges  good,  and  destroyed  the 
very  tenableness  of  our  positions  and  even  the  mere 
16 


362 

probability  of  our  representations.  However,  into 
the  consideration,  whether  of  these  objections  or  of 
their  answers,  I  shall  not  be  expected  to  enter  ;  aud 
especially,  because  each  would  form  a  separate  sub- 
ject in  itself,  and  furnish  matter  for  a  separate 
Lecture.  How,  for  instance,  would  it  be  possible  in 
the  course  of  an  hour,  and  with  such  an  exercise  of 
attention  as  might  fairly  be  exacted  of  you,  to  em- 
brace subjects  as  distinct  from  each  other  as  the 
primitive  faith  concerning  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and 
the  Apostolic  See,  and  the  Holy  Eucharist,  and  the 
worship  of  images?  You  would  not  expect  it  of 
me,  nor  promise  it  for  yourselves  ;  and  the  less  so, 
because,  as  you  know,  my  profession  all  along  has 
been  to  confine  myself,  as  far  as  1  can,  to  general  i 
considerations,  and  to  appeal,  in  proof  of  what  I . 
assert,  rather  to  common  sense  and  facts  before  our 
eyes  than  to  theology  and  history. 

In  thus  opening  the  subject,  my  brethren,  I  have 
been  both  explaining  and  apologising  for  what  I  am 
proposing  to  do.  For,  if  I  am  to  say  something, 
not  directly  in  answer  to  the  particular  objections 
brought  from  Antiquity  against  the  doctrine  and 
discipline  of  the  present  Catholic  Church,  but  by 
way  of  appeasing  and  allaying  that  general  mis- 
giving and  perplexity  which  those  objections  excite, 
what  can  I  do  better  than  appeal  to  a  fact, — though 
I  cannot  do  so  without  some  indulgence  on  the  part 
of  my  hearers, — a  fact  connected  with  myself?   And 


363 

it  is  the  less  unfair  to  do  so,  because,  as  regards  the 
history  of  the  early  Church  and  the  writings  of  the 
Fathers,  so  many  mutt  go  by  ihe  testimony  of  others, 
and  so  few  have  opportunity  to  use  their  own  expe- 
rience. I  say,  then,  that  the  writings  of  the  Fathers 
so  far  from  prejudicing  at  least  one  man  against  the 
modern  Church,  have  been  simply  and  solely  the  one 
intellectual  cause  of  his  having  renounced  the  reli- 
gion in  which  he  was  born,  and  submitted  himself  to 
her.  What  other  causes  there  may  be,  not  intel- 
lectual, unknown,  unsuspected  by  himself,  though 
freely  imputed,  on  mere  conjecture,  by  those  who 
would  invalidate  his  testimony,  it  would  be  unbe- 
coming and  impertinent  to  discuss  :  for  himself,  if 
he  is  asked  why  he  became  a  Catholic,  he  can  only 
give  that  answer  which  experience  and  consciousness 
bring  home  to  him  as  the  true  one,  viz.,  that  he 
j  tined  the  Catholic  Church  simply  because  he  be- 
lieved it,  and  it  only,  to  be  the  Church  of  the 
Fathers  ; — because  he  believed  that  there  was  a 
Church  upon  earth  till  the  end  of  time,  and  one 
only ;  and  because,  unless  it  was  the  communion  of 
Rome,  and  it  only,  there  was  none  ; — because,  to  use 
language  purposely  guarded,  because  it  was  the 
langu-ige  of  controversy,  "all  parties  will  agree 
that,  of  all  existing  systems,  the  present  communion 
of  Rome  is  the  nearest  approximation  in  fuet  to  the 
Church  of  the  Fathers;  possible  though  some  may 
think  it,  to  be  still  nearer  to  it  on  paper  j" — because, 


364 

"  did  St.  Athanasius  or  St.  Ambrose  come  suddenly 
to  life,  it  cannot  be  doubted  what  communion  they 
would  mistake,"  not  to  say,  recognize  "  for  their 
own  ;" — because  "all  will  agree  that  these  Fathers, 
with  whatever  differences  of  opinion,  whatever  pro- 
tests if  you  will,  would  find  themselves  more  at  home 
with  such  men  as  St.  Bernard  or  St.  Ignatius 
Loyola,  or  with  the  lonely  priest  in  his  lodgings,  or 
the  holy  sisterhood  of  mercy,  or  the  unlettered 
crowd  before  the  altar,  than  with  the  rulers  or  the 
members  of  any  other  religious  communities."* 

This  is  the  great,  manifest,  historical  phenomenon 
which  converted  me,  to  which  all  particular  inquiries 
converged.  Christianity  is  not  a  matter  of  opinion, 
but  an  external  fact,  entering  into,  carried  out  in, 
indivisible  from,  the  history  of  the  world.  It  has  a 
bodily  occupation  of  the  world  ;  it  is  one  continuous 
fact  or  thing,  the  same  from  first  to  last ;  distinct 
from  everything  else  :  to  be  a  Christian  is  to  partake 
of,  to  submit  to,  this  thing;  and  the  simple  question 
was,  Where,  what  is  this  thing  in  this  age,  which  in 
the  first  age  was  the  Catholic  Church  ?  The  answer 
was  undeniable;  the  Church  called  Catholic  now  is 
that  very  same  thing  in  hereditary  descent,  in  or- 
ganization, in  principles,  in  position,  in  external 
relations,  which  was  called  the  Catholic  Church 
then ;  name  aud  thing  have  ever  gone  together,  by 


*  Es3ay  on  Development,  p.  l$J. 


365 

an  uninterrupted  connexion  and  succession,  from 
then  till  now.  Whether  it  had  been  corrupted  in 
its  teaching  was,  at  best,  a  matter  of  opinion  ;  whe- 
ther it  had  had  a  perpetuity  was  a  matter  of  fact. 
It  was  indefinitely  more  certain  that  it  stood  in  the 
plaee  of  the  ancient  Church,  as  its  heir  and  repre- 
sentative, than  that  certain  peculiarities  in  its 
teaching  were  really  innovations  and  corruptions. 
Say  there  is  no  Church  at  all,  if  you  will,  and  at 
least  I  shall  understand  you ;  but  do  not  meddle 
with  a  fact  attested  by  mankind.  I  am  almost 
ashamed  to  insist  upon  so  plain  a  point,  which  in 
many  respects  is  axiomatically  true,  except  that  there 
are  persons  who  wish  to  deny  it.  There  are  and 
have  been  such  persons,  and  men  of  deep  learning ; 
but  their  adverse  opinion  does  not  interfere  with  my 
present  use  of  what  I  think  so  plain.  Observe,  I 
am  not  insisting  on  my  own  view  of  the  matter  as 
an  axiom,  nor  proving  it  as  a  conclusion,  nor  forcing 
it  on  your  acceptance  as  your  reason  for  joining  the 
Catholic  Church,  as  it  was  mine.  Let  every  one 
have  his  own  reason  for  becoming  a  Catholic;  for 
reasons  are  in  plenty,  and  there  are  enough  for  you 
all,  and  moreover  all  are  good  ones  and  consistent 
with  each  other.  T  am  not  assigning  reasons  why 
you  should  be  Catholics ;  you  have  them  already  : 
from  first  to  last  I  am  doing  nothing  more  than  re- 
moving difficulties  in  your  path,  which  obstruct  ike 
legitimate  effect  of  those  reasons  which  have  already 


366 

convinced  you.  And  to-day  I  am  answering  the 
objection,  so  powerfully  urged  upon  those  who  have 
no  means  of  examining  if.  fi  r  themselves,  that,  as  a 
matter  of  tact,  the  modern  Church  has  departed* 
from  tht  teaching  of  the  ancient.  Now  even  one 
man's  contrary  testimony  avails  to  destroy  this  sup- 
posed matter  of  fact,  though  it  is  not  sufficient  to 
establish  any  opposite  matter  of  fact  of  his  own.  I 
say,  then,  the  Catholicism  of  to-day  cannot  differ 
very  seriously  from  the  Catholicism  of  Antiquity, 
if  its  agreement,  or  rather  its  identity,  with  Anti- 
quity forms  the  very  reason  on  which  even  one  edu- 
cated and  reflecting  person  is  induced,  much  against 
every  natural  inducement,  to  submit  to  its  claims. 
Antiquity  cannot  supply  a  very  conclusive  argument 
against  it,  if  it  has  furnished  even  one  such  person 
with  a  conclusive  argument  in  its  favor.  Let  us 
grant  that  the  argument  against  it  is  not  altogether 
destroyed  by  this  antagonist  argument  for  it ;  yet 
surely  it  will  be  too  much  damaged  and  enfeebled  by 
the  collision  to  do  much  towards  resisting  those  in- 
dependent reasons,  personal  to  yourselves,  which  are 
already  leading  you  to  it. 

My  testimony,  then,  is  as  follows.  Even  when  I 
was  a  boy,  my  thoughts  were  turned  to  the  early 
Church,  and  especially,  to  the  early  Fathers,  by  the 
perusal  of  Miluer's  Church  History,  and  I  have 
never  lost,  I  never  have  suffered  a  suspension  of  the 
impression,   deep  and  most   pleasurable,  which  his 


36? 

sketches  of  St.  Ambrose  and  St.  Augustine  left  on 
my  mind.  From  that  time  the  vision  of  the  Fathers 
was  always,  to  my  imagination,  I  may  say,  a  paradise 
of  delight,  to  the  contemplation  of  which  I  directed 
my  thoughts  from  time  to  time,  whenever  I  was  free 
from  the  engagements  proper  to  ray  time  of  life. 
When  I  first  began  to  read  their  works  with  atten- 
tion and  on  system,  I  busied  myself  much  in  ana- 
lyzing them,  and  in  cataloguing  their  doctrines  and 
principles ;  and,  when  I  had  thus  proceeded  very 
carefully  and  minutely  for  some  space  of  time,  I 
found,  on  looking  back  on  what  I  had  done,  that  I 
had  scarcely  done  anything  at  all ;  that  I  had  gained 
very  little  from  them,  and  that  the  Fathers.  I  had 
been  reading,  which  were  exclusively  those  of  the 
ante-Nicene  period,  as  far  as  my  reading  was  con- 
cerned, had  very  little  in  them.  At  the  time  I  did 
not  discover  the  reason  of  this  result,  though,  on  the 
retrospect,  it  was  plain  enough  :  I  had  read  them 
simply  on  Protestant  ideas,  analyzed  and  catalogued 
them  on  Protestant  principles  of  division,  and  hunted 
for  Protestant  doctrines  and  usages  in  them.  My 
headings  ran,  "Justification  by  faith  only,"  "Sane- 
tification,"  and  the  like.  I  knew  not  what  to  look 
for  in  them  ;  I  sought  what  was  not  there,  I  missed 
what  was  there ;  I  labored  through  the  night  and 
caught  nothing.  But  I  should  make  one  important 
exception  :  I  rose  from  their  perusal  with  a  vivid 
perception  of  the  divine  institution,  the  prerogatives. 


368 

and  the  gifts  of  the  Episcopate;  that  is,  with  an 
implicit  aversion  to  the  Erastian  principle. 

Some  years  afterwards  I  took  up  the  study  of 
them  again,  when  I  had  occasion  to  employ  rmself 
on  the  history  of  Arianism.  I  read  them  with  Bull's 
Dcftnsio  as  their  key,  as  far  as  his  subject  extended  ; 
but  I  am  not  aware  that  I  made  any  other  special 
doctrinal  use  of  them  at  that  time. 

I  had  set  myself  the  study  of  them,  with  almosfe 
the  single  view  of  pursuing  the  series  of  controver- 
sies connected  with  our  Lord's  person  ;  and  to  the 
examination  of  these  controversies  I  devoted  two 
summers,  with  the  interval  of  some  years  between 
them.  '  And  now  at  length  I  was  reading  them  for 
myself;  for  no  Anglican  writer  had  specially  and 
minutely  treated  the  subjects  on  which  I  was  en- 
gaged. On  my  first  introduction  to  them  I  had 
read  them  as  a  Protestant ;  and  next,  I  had  read 
them  pretty  much  as  an  Anglican,  though  it  is  ob- 
servable that,  whatever*  I  gained  on  eitber  visit  I 
paid  them,  over  and  above  the  theory  or  system 
with  which  I  started,  was  in  a  Catholic  direction. 
In  the  former  of  the  two  summers  I  speak  of,  my 
reading  was  almost  entirely  confined  to  strictly  doc- 
trinal subjects,  to  the  exclusion  of  history,  and  I 
believe  it  left  mo  pretty  much  where  I  was  on  the 
question  of  the  Catholic  Church  ;  but  in  the  latter 
of  the  two  seasons,  it  was  principally  occupied  with 
the  public  course  of  the  Monophysite  controversy, 


and  the  circumstances  and  transactions  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Chalcedon,  in  the  fifth  century,  and  at  once 
and  irrevocably  I  found  my  faith  gone  in  the  tena- 
bleness  of  the  fundamental  principle  of  Anglicanism} 
and  a  doubt  of  it  implanted  in  my  mind  which  never 
disappeared.*  I  thought  I  saw  in  the  controversy 
I  have  named,  and  in  the  Ecumenical  Council  con* 
nected  with  it,  a  clear  interpretation  of  the  present 
state  of  Christendom,  and  a  key  to  the  different 
parties  and  personages  who  have  figured  on  the 
Catholic  or  the  Protestant  side  during  the  period  of 
the  Reformation.  During  the  autumn  of  the  same 
year,  a  paper  I  fell  in  with  upon  the  schism  of  the 
Donatists  deepened  the  impression  which  the  history 
of  the  Monophysites  had  made ;  and  I  felt  dazzled 
and  excited  by  the  new  view  of  things  which  was 
thus  opened  to  me.  Distrusting  my  judgment,  and 
that  I  might  be  a  better  judge  of  the  subject,  I 
determined  for  a  time  to  put  it  away  from  my  mind  | 
nor  did  I  return  to  it  till  I  gave  myself  to  the  trans* 
lation  of  the  doctrinal  Treatises  of  St.  Athanasius. 
This  occupation  brought  up  again  before  me  the 
whole  question  of  the  Arian  controversy  and  the 
Nicene  Council ;  and  I  clearly  saw  in  that  history, 
what  I  had  not  perceived  on  the  first  study  of  it, 
the  same  phenomenon  which  I  had  already  found  in 
the  history  of  St.  Leo  and  the  Monophysites.     From 

*  This  was  some  time  before  the  publication  cf  No.  90  of  th* 
Tracts  for  the  Times, 

16* 


S70 

that  time,  what  delayed  my  conviction  of  the  claims 
of  the  Catholic  Church  upon  me,  was  not  any  con- 
fidence in  Anglicanism  as  a  system  of  doctrine,  but 
particular  objections  which  as  yet  I  saw  no  way  of 
reducing,  and  the  fear  that,  since  I  found  others 
against  me,  I  might,  in  some  way  or  other,  be  in- 
volved in  a  delusion. 

And  now  you  will  ask  me,  what  it  is  I  saw  in  the 
history  of  primitive  controversies  and  councils  which 
was  so  fatal  to  the  pretensions  of  the  Anglican 
Church?  I  saw  that  the  general  theory  and  posi- 
tion of  Anglicanism  was  no  novelty  in  ancient  his- 
tory, but  had  a  distinct  place  in  it,  and  a  series  of 
prototypes,  and  that  these  prototypes  had  ever  been 
heretics  or  the  patrons  of  heresy.  The  very  badge 
of  Anglicanism,  as  a  system,  is  that  it  is  a  Via 
Media  ;  this  is  its  life  ;  it  is  this,  or  it  is  nothing : 
deny  this,  and  it  forthwith  dissolves  into  Catholicism 
or  Protestantism.  This  constitutes  its  onl^  claim  to 
be  recognized  as  a  distinct  form  of  Christianity  ;  it 
is  its  recommendation  to  the  world  at  large,  and  its 
simple  measuring- line  for  the  whole  field  of  theology. 
The  Via  Media  appeals  to  the  good  sense  of  man- 
kind ;  it  says  that  the  human  mind  is  naturally 
prone  to  excess,  and  that  theological  combatants  in 
particular  are  certain  to  run  into  extremes.  Truth, 
as  virtue,  lies  in  a  mean ;  whatever,  then,  is  true  or 
not  true,  extremes  certainly  are  false.  And,  whereas 
truth  is  in  a  mean*  for  that  very  reason  it  is  ever 


371 

moderate ;  it  can  tolerate  either  extreme  with  great 
patience,  because  it  views  neither  with  that  keenness 
of  contrariety  with  which  one  extreme  regards  the 
other.  For  the  same  reason  it  is  comprehensive ; 
because,  being  in  a  certain  sense  in  the  centre  of  all 
errors,  though  having  no  part  in  any  of  them,  it  may 
be  said  to  rule  and  to  temper  them,  to  bring  them 
together,  and  to  make  them,  as  it  were,  converge 
and  conspire  together  in  one  under  its  own  meek  and 
gracious  sway.  Dispassionateness,  forbearance,  in- 
dulgence, toleration,  and  comprehension  are  thus  all 
of  them  attributes  of  the  Via  Media.  It  is  ob- 
vious, moreover,  that  a  doctrine  like  this  will  find 
especial  acceptance  with  the  civil  magistrate.  Re- 
ligion he  needs  as  an  instrument  of  government; 
yet  in  religious  opinion  he  sees  nothing  else  but  the 
fertile  cause  of  discord  and  confusion.  Joyfully 
then  does  he  welcome  a  form  of  theology,  whose 
very  mission  it  is  to  temper  the  violence  of  polemics, 
to  soften  and  to  accommodate  differences,  and  to 
direct  the  energies  of  churchmen  to  the  attainment 
of  tangible  good  instead  of  the  discussion  of  mys- 
teries. 

This  feeling  is  expressed  in  the  following  passagej 
which  I  quote  with  shame  and  sorrow ;  the  more  so, 
because,  however  accurate  an  exponent  it  is  of  the 
Anglican  doctrine  itself,  it  is  certainly  inconsistent 
with  the  general  teaching  of  the  writer  to  whom  it 
belongs.     "  Though  it  is  not  likely,"  he  says,  "  that 


Romanism  should  ever  again  become  formidable  in 
England,  yet  it  may  be  in  a  pos;tion  to  make  its 
voice  heard ;  and,  in  proportion  as  it  is  able  to  do 
so,  the  Via  Media  will  do  important  service  of  the 
following  kind.  In  the  controversy  which  will 
ensue,  Rome  will  not  fail  to  preach,  far  and  wide, 
the  tenet  which  it  never  conceals,  that  there  is  no 
salvation  external  to  its  own  communion.  On  the 
other  hand,  Protestantism,  as  it  exists,  will  not  be 
behindhand  in  consigning  to  eternal  ruin  all  who  are 
adherents  of  Roman  doctrine.  What  a  prospect  is 
this  !  two  widely-spread  and  powerful  parties  dealing 
forth  solemn  anathemas  upon  each  other,  in  the 
Name  of  the  Lord!  Indifference  and  scepticism 
must  be,  in  such  a  case,  the  ordinary  refuge  of  men 
of  mild  and  peaceable  minds,  who  revolt  from  such 
presumption,  and  are  deficient  in  clear  views  of  the 
truth.  I  cannot  well  exaggerate  the  misery  of  such 
a  state  of  things.  Here  the  English  theology  would 
come  in  with  its  characteristic  calmness  and  caution, 
clear  and  decided  in  its  views,  giving  no  encourage- 
ment to  lukewarmness  and  liberalism,  but  withholding 
all  absolute  anathemas  on  errors  of  opinion,  except 
where  the  primitive  Church  sanctions  the  use  of 
them."* 

Such,  then,  is  the  Anglican  Church  and  its  Via 
Media,  and  such  the  practical  application  of  it ;  it 


Froph.  Off!  p.  26-. 


373 

is  an  interposition  or  arbitration  between  the  extreme 
doctrines  of  Protestantism  and  the  faith  of  Home 
which  that  heresy  contradicts.  And  moreover, 
though  it  may  be  unwilling  to  allow  it,  it  is,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  but  a  particular  form  of  Protes- 
tantism. I  do  not  say  that  in  secondary  principles 
it  may  not  agree  with  the  Catholic  Church ;  but,  its 
essential  idea  being  that  she  has  gone  too  far,  whereas 
the  essential  idea  of  Catholicism  is  the  Church's  in- 
fallibility, the  Via  Media  is  really  nothing  else  than 
Protestant.  Not  simply  to  submit  to  the  Church  is 
to  oppose  her,  and  to  side  with  the  heretical  party ; 
for  medium  there  is  none.  The  Via  Media  assumes 
that  Protestantism  is  right  in  its  protest  against 
Catholic  doctrine,  only  that  it  needs  correcting, 
limiting,  perfecting.  This  surely  is  but  a  matter  of 
fact;  for  it  has  adopted  all  the  great  Protestant 
doctrines,  as  its  most  strenuous  upholder  and  the 
highest  of  Anglo-Catholics  will  be  obliged  to  allow  s 
the  mutilated  canon,  the  defective  Rule  of  Faith, 
justification  by  faith  only,  putative  righteousness,  the 
infection  of  nature  in  the  regenerate,  the  denial  of 
the  five  Sacraments,  the  relation  of  faith  to  the 
Sacramental  Presence,  and  the  like ;  its  aim  being 
nothing  else  than  to  moderate,  with  Melanchthon, 
the  extreme  statements  of  Luther,  to  keep  them 
from  shocking  the  feelings  of  human  nature,  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  criticism  of  common  sense,  and 
from   the  pressure   and  urgency    of   controversial 


874 

attack.  Thus  we  have  three  parties  on  the  historic 
cal  stage:  the  see  and  communion  of  Rome;  the 
original  pure  Protestant,  violent,  daring,  offensive, 
fanatical  in  his  doctrines ;  and  a  cautious  middle 
party,  quite  as  heretical  in  principle  and  in  doctrinal 
elements  as  Protestantism  itself,  but  having  an  eye 
to  the  necessities  of  controversy,'  sensible  in  its 
ideas,  sober  in  its  tastes,  safe  in  its  statements,  con* 
servative  in  its  aims,  and  practical  in  its  measures, 
Such  a  Via  Media  has  been  represented  by  the  line 
of  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  from  Tillotson  down* 
wards,  a3  by  Cranmer  before  them.  Such  in  their 
theology,  though  not  in  their  persons  or  their  his- 
tories, were  Laud  and  Bull,  Taylor  and  Hammond, 
and  I  may  say  nearly  all  the  great  authorities  of  the 
Established  Church.  This  distinctive  character  has 
often  been  noticed,  especially  by  Mr.  Alexander 
Knox,  and  much  might  be  said  upon  it ;  and,  as  I 
have  already  observed,  it  ever  receives  the  special 
countenance  of  the  civil  magistrate,  who,  if  he  could, 
would  take  up  with  a  religion  without  any  doctrines 
whatever,  as  Warburton  well  understands,  but  who, 
in  the  case  of  a  necessary  evil,  admires  the  sobriety 
of  Tillotson,  and  the  piety  of  Patrick,  and  the  ele- 
gance of  Jortin,  and  the  literary  merits  of  Lowth, 
and  the  shrewd  sense  of  Paley. 

Now  this  sketch  of  the  relative  positions  of  tee 
See  of  Rome,  Protestantism,  the  Via  Media,  and 
the  State,  which  we  see  in  the  history  of  the  last 


S75 

three  centuries  is,  I  repeat,  no  novelty  in  history  \ 
it  is  almost  its  rule,  certainly  its  rule  during  the  long 
period  when  relations  existed  between  the  Byzantine 
Court  and  the  Holy  See ;  and  it  is  impossible  to 
resist  the  conclusion,  which  the  actual  inspection  of 
the  history  in  detail  forces  upon  us,  that  what  the 
See  of  Rome  was  then  such  is  it  now ;  that  what 
Arius,  Nestorius,  or  Eutyches  were  then,  such  are 
Luther  and  Calvin  now;  what  the  Eusebians  or 
Monophysites  then,  such  the  Anglican  hierarchy 
now ;  what  the  Byzantine  Court  then,  such  is  now 
the  Government  of  England,  and  sucli  would  have 
been  many  a  Catholic  Court,  had  it  had  its  way. 
That  ancient  history  is  not  dead,  it  lives ;  it  pro- 
phesies of  what  passes  before  our  eyes  ;  it  is  founded 
in  the  nature  of  things ;  we  see  ourselves  in  it,  as  in 
a  glass,  and,  if  the  Via  Media  was  heretical  then, 
it  is  heretical  now. 

I  do  not  know  how  to  convey  this  to  others  in  one 
or  two  paragraphs :  it  is  the  living  picture  which 
history  presents  to  us,  which  is  the  evidence  of  the 
fact ;  and  to  attempt  a  mere  outline  of  it,  or  to  de- 
tach one  or  two  groups  from  the  finished  composition, 
is  to  do  injustice  to  its  luminousness.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  history  of  Arianism.  Alius  stood 
almost  by  himself:  bold,  keen,  stern,  and  violent,  he 
took  his  stand  on  two  or  three  axiomatic  statements, 
as  he  considered  them,  appealed  to  Scripture,  de- 
spised authority  and  tradition,  and  carried  out  his 


ST6 

heretical  doctrine  to  its  furthest  limits.  He  abso- 
lutely maintained,  without  any  reserve,  that  our 
Lord  was  a  creature,  and  had  a  beginning.  He  was 
one  of  a  number  of  able  and  distinguished  men, 
scattered  over  the  East,  united  together  by  the  bond 
of  a  common  master  and  a  common  school,  who 
might  have  been  expected  to  stand  by  him  on  his 
appealing  to  them;  but  who  left  him  to  his  fate,  or 
at  least  but  circuitously  and  indirectly  served  his 
cause.  High  iu  station,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  they 
found  it  more  consistent  with  their  duties  towards 
themselves  to  fall  back  upon  a  more  cautious  phrase- 
ology, and  less  assailable  principles,  to  evade  inquiry, 
to  explain  away  tests,  and  to  profess  a  submission  to 
the  voice  of  their  forefathers  and  of  the  Catholic 
world  ;  and  they  developed  their  formidable  party  in 
that  form  of  heresy  which  is  commonly  called  Semi- 
arianism  or  Eusebianism.  They  preached  peace, 
professed  to  agree  with  neither  St.  Athanasius  nor 
Arius,  excited  the  jealousies  of  the  Eastern  world 
against  the  West,  were  strong  enough  to  insult  the 
Pope,  and  dexterous  enough  to  gain  the  favor  of 
Constantine  and  the  devoted  attachment  of  his  son 
Constantius.  The  name  of  Eusebians  they  received 
from  their  leader,  the  able  and  unscrupulous  Bishop 
of  Nicomedia,  with  whom  was  associated  another 
Eusebius,  better  known  to  posterity  as  the  learned 
historian  of  the  Church,  and  one  of  the  most  ac- 
complished and  able  of  the  Fathers.     It  will  be  to 


S77 

my  purpose  to  quote  one  or  two  sentnnces  in  descrip- 
tion of  the  character  of  this  celebrated  man,  written 
at  a  time  when  the  Via  Media  had  not,  been  made 
the  subject  of  cont;  oversy,  nor  the  bearing  of  the 
Arian  history  upon  it  as  y^t  surmised.  "  He  seems," 
says  the  writer,  "  to  have  had  the  faults  and  the 
virtues  of  the  mere  man  of  letters;  strongly  excited 
neither  to  good  nor  to  evil,  and  careless  at  once  of 
the  cause  of  truth  and  the  prizes  of  secular  great- 
ness, in  comparison  of  the  comforts  and  decencies 
of  literary  ease.  In  his  writings,  numerous  as  they 
are,  there  is  very  little  which  fixes  on  Eusebius  any 
charge,  beyond  that  of  an  attachment  to  the  Platonic 
phraseology.  Had  he  not  connected  himsrlf  with 
the  Arian  party,  it  would  have  been  unjust  to  have 
suspected  him  of  heresy.  Bat  his  acts  are  his  con- 
fession. He  op-nly  sided  with  those  whose  blas- 
phemies a  true  Christian  would  have  abhorred  ;  and 
he  sanctioned  and  shared  their  deeds  of  violence  and 
injustice  perpetrated  on  the  Catholics.  .  .  .  The 
grave  accusation  under  which  he  lies  is  not  that  of 
Arianizing,*  but  of  corrupting  the  simplicity  of  the 
Gospel  with  an  Eclectic  spirit.  While  he  held  out 
the  ambiguous  language  of  the  schools  as  a  refuge, 
and  the  Alexandrian  imitation  of  it  as  an  argument, 
against  the  pursuit  of  the  orthodox,  his  conduct  gave 
countenance  to  the  secular  maxim,  that  difference  in 


*  The  author  has  now  still  less  favorable  views  of  Eusebius's 
theology  than  he  had  when  he  wrote  this  in  1832. 


373 

creeds  is  a  matter  of  inferior  moment,  and  that, 
provided  we  confess  as  far  as  the  very  terms  of 
Scripture,  we  may  speculate  as  philosophers  and 
live  as  the  world.  .  .  .  The  remark  has  been  made, 
that  throughout  his  Ecclesiastical  History  no  in- 
stance occurs  of  his  expressiug  abhorrence  of  the 
superstitions  of  paganism ;  and  that  his  custom  is 
either  to  praise,  or  not  to  blame,  such  heretical 
writers  as  fall  under  his  notice."*  Much  more 
mHit  be  added  in  illustration  of  the  resemblance  of 

o 

this  eminent  writer  to  the  divines  of  the  Anglican 
Via  Media. 

The  Emperor  Constantinehas  already  been  named ; 
and,  looking  at  him  in  his  ecclesiastical  character, 
we  find  him  committed  to  two  remarkable  steps  :  one 
that  he  frankly  surrendered  himself  to  the  intimate 
friendship  of  this  latitudinarian  theologian  ;  the 
other,  that,  at  the  very  first  rumor  of  the  Arian  dis- 
sensions, he  promptly,  and  with  the  precision  of  an 
instinct,  interfered  in  the  quarrel,  and  in  a  politician's 
way  pronounced  it  a  logomachy,  or  at  least  a  matter 
of  mere  speculation,  and  bade  bishops  and  heretics 
embrace  and  make  it  up  with  each  other  at  once. 
This  did  he  in  a  question  no  less  solemn  than  that 
of  the  divinity  of  our  Lord,  which,  if  any  question, 
could  not,  one  would  think,  be  other  than  most  in- 
fluential in  a  Christian's  creed.  But  Constantine 
was  not  a  Christian  as  yet ;  and  this,  while  it  partly 


*  Arians  of  the  Fourth  Century,  p.  231. 


379 

explains  the  extravagance  of  his  conduct,  illustrates 
the  external  and  utilitarian  character  of  a  statesman's 
religion. 

I  will  present  to  you  portions  of  the  celebrated 
letter  which  he  addressed  to  the  Bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria and  to  Arius,  as  quoted  in  the  history  to  which 
I  have  already  referred.  "  He  professes  therein  two 
motives  as  impelling  him  in  his  public  conduct;  first, 
the  desire  of  effecting  the  reception,  throughout  his 
dominions,  of  some  one  definite  and  complete  form 
of  religious  worship;  next,  that  of  settling  and  in- 
vigorating the  civil  institutions  of  the  empire.  De- 
sirous of  securing  an  unity  of  sentiment  among  all 
the  believers  in  the  Deity,  he  professes  first  to  have 
directed  his  attention  to  the  religious  dissensions  of 
Africa,  where  he  had  hoped  to  have  had  the  aid  of 
the  Oriental  Christians  in  his  attempt  to  terminate 
them.  '  But,  glorious  and  Divine  Providence!'  he 
continues,  i  how  grievously  were  my  ears,  or  rather 
my  heart  wounded,  by  the  report  of  a  rising  schism 
among  you  far  more  acrimonious  than  the  African 
dissensions.  .  .  .  On  investigation,  I  must  say,  that 
the  reasons  for  this  eagerness  on  both  sides  appear  to 
me  insignificant  and  worthless.  ...  As  I  under- 
stand the  matter,  it  seems  that  you,  Alexander,  were 
askiug  the  separate  opinions  of  your  clergy  on  some 
passage  of  Sciipture,  or  rather  were  inquiring  about 
some  unedifying  question,  when  you,  Alius,  iacon- 
s  derately  committed  yourself  to  statements,  which 
should  either  never  have  come  into  your   mind,  or 


$80 

have  been  at  ones  repressed.  On  this  a  difference 
ensued,  Christian  intercourse  was  suspended,  the 
sacred  flock  was  divided  into  two,  and  the  harmo- 
nious order  of  the  Church  broken.  .  .  .  My  advice 
to  you  is,  neither  to  ask  nor  answer  questions,  which, 
instead  of  being  Scriptural,  are  the  mere  sport  of 
idleness,  or  an  exercise  of  ability;  at  best,  keep 
them  to  yourselves,  and  do  not  publish  them.  .  .  , 
You  agree  in  fundamentals  ;  neither  of  you  is  intro- 
ducing any  novel  mode  of  worship,  so  that  it  is  in 
your  power  to  unite  in  one  communion.  Even  the 
philosophers  of  one  sect  can  agree  together,  though 
differing  in  particulars.  ...  Is  it  right  for  brothers 
to  oppose  brothers,  for  the  sake  of  trifls?  .  .  . 
Such  conduct  might  be  expected  from  the  multitude, 
or  from  the  intemperance  of  youth,  but  little  befits 
your  sacred  order  and  experience  of  the  world.  .  .  . 
Give  me  back  my  days  of  calm,  my  nights  of  secu- 
rity ;  that  I  may  experience  henceforth  the  comfort 
of  the  clear  light,  and  the  cheerfulness  of  tranquil- 
lity. Otherwise  I  shall  sigh  and  be  dissolved  in 
tears.  ...  So  great  is  my  grief,  that  I  put  off  my 
journey  to  the  East  on  the  news  of  your  dissension. 
.  .  .  Open  for  me  that  path  towards  you,  which  your 
contentions  have  closed  up.  Let  me  see  you  and  all 
other  cities  in  happiness,  that  I  may  offer  due  thanks- 
givings to  G-od  above  for  the  unanimity  and  free 
intercourse  which  is  seen  among  you.'  ,,# 


Arians  of  the  Fourth  Century,  p.  267. 


381 

Such  was  the  position  which  the  civil  power  as- 
sumed in  the  very  first  days  of  its  nativity.  The 
very  moment  the  State  enters  into  the  Church,  it 
shows  its  nature  and  its  propensities,  and  takes  up  a 
position  which  it  has  never  changed,  and  never  will. 
Kings  and  statesmen  may  be,  and  have  been,  saints; 
but,  in  being  such,  they  have  acted  agaiust  the  in- 
terests and  traditions  of  kingcraft  and  statesmanship. 
Constantine  died,  but  his  line  of  policy  continued. 
His  son,  Constantius,  embraced  the  Via  Media  of 
Eusebianism,  on  conviction  as  well  as  from  expe- 
diency. He  sternly  set  himself  against  both  ex- 
tremes, as  he  considered  them,  banished  the  fanatical 
successors  of  Arius,  and  tortured  and  put  to  death 
the  adherents  to  the  Nicene  Creed  and  the  cause  of 
St.  Athanasius.  Thus  the  Via  Media  party  was  in 
the  ascendancy  for  about  thirty  years,  till  the  death 
of  the  generation  by  whom  it  had  been  formed  and 
protected ; — with  quarrels  and  defections  among 
themselves,  restless  attempts  at  stability  in  faith, 
violent  efforts  after  a  definitive  creed,  fruitless  pro- 
jects of  comprehension,  when,  towards  the  end  of 
their  domination,  a  phenomenon  showed  itself  which 
claims  our  particular  attention,  as  not  without 
parallel  in  eccle.siastical  hi>tory,  and  as  reminding 
us  of  what  is  going  on  in  a  humbler  way  and  on  a 
narrower  stage  before  our  eyes.  In  various  districts, 
especially  of  Asia  Minor,  a  considerable  party  had 
gradually  been  forming,  and  had  exercised  a  con- 


382 

siderable  influence  in  the  ecclesiastical  transactions 
of  the  period,  who,  though  called  Semi-arians  and 
professing  their  symbols,  had  no  sympathies  with  the 
Eusabians,  and  indeed  were  ultimately  disowned  by 
them.  There  seems  to  have  been  about  a  hundred 
bishops  who  belonged  to  this  party,  and  their  leaders 
were  men  of  religious  habits,  and  unblemished  re- 
pute, and  approximated  so  nearly  to  orthodoxy  in 
their  language,  that  saints  appear  among  the  number 
of  their  friends,  or  have  issued  from  their  school. 
They  could  not  stand  as  they  were :  every  year 
brought  its  event;  Constantius  died;  parties  were 
broken  up, — and  this  among  the  rest.  It  divided 
into  two  ;  as  many  as  fifty-nine  of  its  bishops  sub- 
scribed the  orthodox  formula,  and  submitted  them- 
selves to  the  Holy  See.  A  body  of  thirty-four 
persisted  in  their  separation  from  it,  and  afterwards 
formed  a  new  heresy  of  their  own. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  main  features  of  the 
history  of  Arianism;  yet  they  may  be  sufficient  to 
illustrate  the  line  of  argument,  which  antiquity  fur- 
nishes again-t  the  theories,  on  which  alone  the  move- 
ment of  1833  had  claim  on  the  attention  of  Protes- 
tants. That  theory  claimed  to  represent  the 
theological  and  the  ecclesiastical  system  of  the 
Fathers;  and  the  Fathers,  when  interrogated,  did 
but  pronounce  it  to  be  the  offspring  of  eclecticism, 
and  the  creature  of  the  State.  It  could  not  main- 
tain itself  in  its  position  without  allying  itself  his- 


383 

torically  with  that  very  Erastianism,  as  seen  in 
Antiquity,  of  which  it  had  so  intense  a  hatred. 
What  has  been  sketched  from  the  Arian  history 
might  be  shown  still  more  strikingly  in  the  Mono- 
physite. 

Nor  was  it  solely  the  conspicuous  parallel  which  I 
have  been  describing  in  outline,  which,  viewed  in  its 
details,  was  so  fatal  a  note  of  error  against  the  An- 
glican position.  I  soon  found  it  to  follow  that  the 
grounds  on  which  alone  Anglicanism  was  defensible 
formed  an  impregnable  stronghold  for  the  primitive 
heresies,  and  that  the  justification  of  the  primitive 
councils  was  as  cogent  an  apology  for  the  Council 
of  Trent.  Without  going  into  the  question  here, 
which  would  be  out  of  place,  it  was  difficult  to  make 
out  how  the  Eutychians  or  Monophysites  were  he- 
retics, unless  Protestants  and  Anglicans  were  heretics 
also  ;  difficult  to  find  arguments  against  the  Triden- 
tine  Fathers  which  did  not  tell  against  the  Fathers 
of  Chalcedon;  difficult  to  condemn  the  Popes  of  the 
sixteenth  century  without  condemning  the  Popes  of 
the  fifth.  The  drama  of  religion,  and  the  combat 
of  truth  and  error  were  ever  one  and  the  same. 
The  principles  and  proceedings  of  the  Church  now 
were  those  of  the  Church  then  ;  the  principles  and 
proceedings  of  heretics  then  were  those  of  Protes- 
tants now.  I  found  it  so, — almost  fearfully ;  there 
was  an  awful  similitude,  more  awful  because  so  silent 
and  unimpassioned,  between  the  dead  records  of  th« 


884 

past  and  the  feverish  chronicle  of  the  present.  The 
shadow  of  the  fifth  century  was  on  the  sixteenth. 
It  was  like  a  spirit  rising  from  the  troubled  wat;  r3 
of  the  old  world  with  the  shape  and  lineaments  of 
the  new.  The  Church  then,  as  now,  might  be 
called  peremptory  and  stern,  resolute,  overbearing, 
and  relentless;  and  heretics  were  shifting,  changea- 
ble, reserved,  and  deceitful,  ever  courting  the  civil 
power,  and  never  agreeing  together,  except  by  its 
aid ;  and  the  civil  power  was  ever  aiming  at  com- 
prehensions, trying  to  put  the  invisible  out  of  view, 
and  to  substitute  expediency  for  faith.  What  was 
the  use  of  continuing  the  controversy,  or  defending 
my  position,  if,  after  all,  I  was  but  forging  arguments 
for  Aiius  or  Eutyches,  and  turning  deviPs  advocate 
against  the  much-enduring  Athanasius  and  the  ma- 
jestic Leo  ?  Be  my  soul  with  the  saints  !  and  shall 
I  lift  up  my  hand  against  them?  Sooner  may  my 
right  hand  forget  her  cunning,  and  wither  outright, 
as  his  who  once  stretched  it  out  against  a  prophet  of 
God!  perish  sooner  a  whole  tribe  of  Craumers, 
Ridleys,  Latimers,  and -Jewess!  perish  the  names  of 
Bramhall,  Ussher,  Taylor,  Stiilingfleet,  and  Barrow, 
from  the  face  of  the  earth,  ere  I  should  do  aught 
but  fall  at  their  feet  in  love  and  in  worship,  whose 
image  was  contiuually  bef  »re  my  eyes,  and  whose 
musical  words  were  ever  iu  my  eais  and  on  my 
tongue ! 

This,  too,  is  an  observable  fact,   that  the  more 


385 

learned  Anglican  writers  seem  aware  of  the  state  of 
the  case,  and  are  obliged,  by  the  necessities  of  their 
position,  to  speak  kindly  of  the  heretical  communi- 
ties of  ancient  history,  and  at  least  obliquely  to 
censure  the  councils,  which  nevertheless  they  pro- 
fess to  receive.  Thus  Bramhall,  as  we  saw  yester- 
day, strives  to  fraternize  with  the  sectaries  now 
existing  in  the  East;  nor  could  he  consistently  do 
otherwise  with  the  Council  of  Trent  and  the  Pro- 
testants in  the  field  of  controversy ;  it  being  difficult 
indeed  to  show  that  the  Eastern  Churches  in  ques- 
tion are  to  be  accounted  heretical,  on  any  principles 
which  a  Protestant  is  able  to  put  forward.  It  is  not 
wonderful,  then,  that  other  great  authorities  in  the 
Established  Church  are  of  the  same  way  of  thinking. 
"  Jewel,  Ussher,  and  Laud,"  says  an  Anglican 
divine  of  this  day,  "  are  apparently  of  this  opinion, 
and  Field  expressly  maintains  it."* 

Jeremy  Taylor  goes  further  still,  that  is,  is  still 
more  consistent ;  for  he  not  merely  acquits  of  heresy 
the  existing  communities  of  the  East  who  dissent 
from  the  third  and  fourth  councils,  but  he  is  bold 
enough  to  attack  the  first  council  of  all,  the  Nicene. 
He  places  the  right  of  private  judgment,  or  what  he 
calls  "  the  liberty  of  prophesying"  before  all  coun- 
cils whatever.  As  to  the  Nicene,  he  says,  "  2"  am 
much  pleased  with  the  enlarging  of  the  Creed  which 


*  Palmer  on  the  Church,  vol.  i.  p.  418. 

17 


386 

the  Council  of  Nice  made,  because  they  enlarged 
it  in  my  sense ;  but  I  am  not  sure  that  others  were 
satisfied  with  it."*  "  That  faith  is  best  which  hath 
greatest  simplicity ;  and  ...  it  is  better,  in  all 
cases,  humbly  to  submit,  than  curiously  to  inquire 
and  pry  into  the  mystery  under  the  cloud,  and  to 
hazard  our  faith  by  improving  our  knowledge.  If 
the  Nicene  Fathers  had  done  so  too,  possibly  the 
Church  would  never  have  repented  it."f  "  If  the 
article  had  been  with  more  simplicity  and  less  nicety 
determined,  charity  would  have  gained  more,  and 
faith  would  have  lost  nothing. "J  And  he  not  only 
calls  Eusebius,  whom  it  is  hard  to  acquit  of  heresy, 
"  the  wisest  of  them  all,"§  but  actually  praises  the 
letter  of  Constantine,  which  I  have  already  cited,  as 
most  true  in  its  view  and  most  pertinent  to  the  oc- 
casion. "  The  Epistle  of  Constantine  to  Alexander 
and  Arius,"  he  says,  "  tells  the  truth,  and  chides 
them  both  for  commencing  the  question ;  Alexander 
for  broaching  it,  Arius  for  taking  it  up.  And  al- 
though this  be  true,  that  it  had  been  better  for  the 
Church  it  never  had  begun,  yet,  being  begun,  what 
is  to  be  done  in  it  ?  Of  this  also,  in  that  admirable 
epistle,  we  have  the  Emperor's  judgment  .... 
for,  first,  he  calls  it  a  certain  vain  piece  of  a  ques- 
tion, ill  begun  and  more  unadvisedly  published,  ,  .  . 

*  Vol.  vii.  p.481.ed.  1828. 
t  Jeremy  Taylor,  ibid, p.  485. 
X  Ibid.    %  Ibid. 


a  fruitless  contention,  the  product  of  idle  brains,  a 
matter  so  nice,  so  obscure,  so  intricate,  that  it  was 
neither  to  be  explicated  by  the  clergy,  nor  under- 
stood by  the  people;  a  dispute  of  words.  ...  It 
concerned  not  the  substance  of  faith,  or  the  worship 
of  God,  nor  any  chief  commandment  of  Scripture 
....  the  matter  being  of  no  great  importance,  but 
vain,  and  a  toy  in  respect  of  the  excellent  blessings 
of  peace  and  charity."*  When  we  recollect  that 
the  question  confessedly  in  dispute  was  whether  our 
Lord  is  the  Eternal  Grod  or  a  creature,  and  that  the 
Nicene  symbol  against  which  he  writes  was  confes- 
sedly the  sole  test  adequate  to  the  definition  of  His 
divinity,  it  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  a  writer 
should  believe  that  divinity  and  thus  express  himself. 
Taylor  is  no  accident,  in  the  history  of  the  Via 
Media ;  he  does  but  speak  plainer  than  Field  and 
Bramhall ;  and  soon  others  began  to  speak  plainer 
than  he.  The  school  of  Laud  gave  birth  to  the 
latitudinarians  ;  Hales  and  Chilling  worth,  their  first 
masters,  were  personal  friends  of  the  Archbishop, 
whose  indignation  with  them  only  proves  his  invol- 
untary sense  of  the  tottering  state  of  his  own  theo- 
logical position.  Lord  Falkland  again,  who  thinks 
that  before  the  Nicene  Council  "  the  generality  of 
Christians  had  not  been  always  taught  the  contrary 
to  Arius's  doctrine,  but  some  one  way,  others  the 

*  P.  482. 


388 

otter,  most  neither,"*  was  the  admired  friend  of 
Hammond ;  and  Grotius,  whose  subsequent  influence 
upon  the  national  divines  has  been  so  serious,  was 
introduced  to  their  notice  by  Hammond  and  Bram- 
hall. 

Such  has  been  the  issue  of  the  Via  Media  ;  its 
tendency  in  theory  is  towards  latitudinal  iauism  ;  its 
position  historically  is  one  of  heresy  ;  in  the  National 
Church  it  has  fulfilled  both  its  theoretical  tendency 
and  its  historical  position.  As  this  single  truth  was 
brought  home  to  me,  I  felt  that,  if  continuance  in 
the  National  Church  was  defensible,  it  must  be  on 
other  grounds  than  those  of  the  Via  Media. 

Yet  this  was  but  one  head  of  argument,  which  the 
history  of  the  early  Church  afforded  against  the 
National  Establishment,  and  in  favor  of  the  Roman 
See.  I  have  already  alluded  to  the  light  which  the 
sehism  of  the  African  Donati-ts  casts  on  the  ques- 
tion between  the  two  parties  in  the  controversy ;  it  is 
clear,  strong,  and  decisive,  but  perfectly  distinct 
from  the  proof  derivable  from  the  Aiian,  Nestorian, 
and  Monophysite  histories. f 

Then  again,  after  drawing  out  from  antiquity  the 
outlines  of  the  ecclesiastical  structure,  and  its  rela- 
tions to  bodies  and  powers  external  to  it,  when  we 
go  on,  as  it  were,  to  color  it  with  the   thousand  tints 


*  Hammond's  Works,  vnl.ii  p  655. 

f  Vide  Dublin  Review,  August,  1339.  Art." A»glican  Claim." 


389 

winch  arc  to  be  found  hi  the  same  ancient  records, 
when  we  consider  the  ritual  of  the  Church,  the  ce~ 
remonial  of  religion,  the  devotions  of  private  Chris- 
tians, the  opinions  generally  received,  and  the  popular 
modes  of  acting,  what  do  we  find  but  a  third  and 
most  striking  proof  of  the  identity  between  primitive 
Christianity  and  modern  Catholicism  ?*  No  other 
form  of  Christianity  but  it  has  a  pretence  to  resem- 
ble, even  in  the  faintest  shadows,  the  Christianity  of 
Antiquity,  viewed  as  a  living  religion  on  the  stage  of 
the  world.  This  has  ever  attached  me  to  such  works 
as  Fleury's  Church  History ;  because,  whatever  may 
be  its  incidental  defects  or  mistakes,  it  brings  before 
the  reader  so  vividly  the  Church  of  the  Fathers,  as 
a  fact  and  reality,  instead  of  speculating,  after  the 
manner  of  most  histories,  on  the  principles,  or  of 
making  views  upon  the  facts,  or  cataloguing  the 
heresies,  rites,  or  writers,  of  those  ancient  times. 
You  may  make  ten  thousand  extracts  from  the 
Fathers,  and  not  get  deeper  into  the  state  of  their 
times  than  the  paper  you  write  upon ;  to  imbibe  into 
the  intellect  the  ancient  Church  as  a  fact,  is  either 
to  be  a  Catholic  or  an  infidel. 

Recollect,  my  brethren,  I  am  going  into  these 
details,  not  as  if  I  thought  of  convincing  you  on  the 
spot  by  a  view  of  hi.-tory  which  convinced  me  after 
careful  consideration,  nor  as  if  I  called  on  you  to  be 

*  Ibid.  Dec.  1843.    Art.  "  A  Voice  from  Rome," 
17* 


390 

convinced  by  what  convinced  me  at  all  (for  the 
methods  of  conviction  are  numberless,  and  one  man 
approaches  the  Church  by  this  road,  another  by 
that),  but  merely  in  order  to  show  you  how  it  was 
that  Antiquity,  instead  of  leading  me  from  the  Holy 
See,  as  it  leads  many,  on  the  contrary  drew  me  on  to 
submit  to  its  claims.  But,  even  had  I  worked  out 
for  you  these  various  arguments  ever  so  fully,  I 
should  have  brought  before  you  but  a  secondary 
portion  of  the  testimony,  which  the  ancient  Church 
seemed  to  me  to  supply  to  its  identity  with  the 
modern.  What  was  far  more  striking  to  me  than 
the  ecclesiastical  phenomena  which  I  have  been 
drawing  out,  remarkable  as  they  are,  is  a  subject  of 
investigation  which  is  not  of  a  nature  to  introduce 
into  a  popular  Lecture ;  I  mean,  the  history  of  the 
doctrinal  definitions  of  the  Church.  It  is  well  known 
that,  though  the  creed  of  the  Church  has  been  one 
and  the  same  from  the  beginning,  yet  it  has  been  so 
deeply  lodged  in  her  bosom  as  to  be  held  by  indi- 
viduals more  or  less  implicitly,  instead  of  being  de- 
livered from  the  first  in  those  special  statements,  or 
what  are  called  definitions,  under  which  it  is  now 
presented  to  us,  and  which  preclude  mistake  or  ig- 
norance. These  definitions,  which  are  but  the  ex- 
pression of  portions  of  the  one  dogma  which  has 
ever  been  received  by  the  Church,  are  the  work  of 
time;  they  have  grown  to  their  present  shape  and 
number  in  the  course  of  eighteen  centuries,  under 


391 

the  exigency  of  successive  events,  such  as  heresies 
and  the  like,  and  they  may  of  course  receive  still 
further  additions  as  time  goes  on.  Now  this  process 
of  doctrinal  development,  as  you  might  suppose,  is 
not  of  an  accidental  or  random  character;  it  is  con- 
ducted upon  laws,  as  everything  else  which  comes 
from  God  ;  and  the  study  of  its  laws  and  of  its  ex- 
hibition, or,  in  other  words,  the  science  and  history 
of  the  formation  of  theology,  was  a  subject  which 
had  interested  me  more  than  anything  else  from  the 
time  I  first  began  to  read  the  Fathers,  and  which 
had  engaged  my  attention  in  a  special  way.  Now  it 
was  gradually  brought  home  to  rn°,  in  the  course  of 
my  reading,  so  gradually,  that  I  cannot  trace  the 
steps  of  my  conviction,  that  the  decrees  of  later 
Councils,  or  what  Anglicans  call  the  Koman  cor- 
ruptions, were  but  instances  of  that  very  same  doc- 
trinal law  which  was  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  the 
early  Church ;  and  that  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
dogmatic  truth  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  may  be  said  in  the  lapse  of  centuries  to  have 
grown  upon  the  consciousness  of  individuals,  in  that 
same  sense  did  in  the  first  age  the  mystery  of  the 
Blessed  Trinity  also  gradually  shine  out  and  mani- 
fest itself  more  and  more  completely  before  their 
minds.  Here  was  at  once  an  answer  to  the  objec- 
tions urged  by  Anglicans  against  the  present  teach- 
ing of  Rome ;  but  not  only  an  answer  to  objections, 
but  a  positive  argument  in  its  favor ;  for  the  immu- 


392 

lability  and  uninterrupted  action  of  the  laws  in 
question  throughout  the  course  of  Church  history  is 
a  plain  note  of  identity  between  the  Catholic  Church 
of  the  first  ages  and  that  which  now  goes  by  the 
name; — just  as  the  argument  from  the  analogy  of 
natural  and  revealed  religion  is  at  once  an  answer  to 
difficulties  in  the  latter,  and  a  direct  proof  that 
Christianity  has  the  same  Author  as  the  physical 
and  moral  world.  But  the  force  of  this,  to  me 
ineffably  cogent  argument,  I  cannot  hope  to  convey 
to  another. 

And  now,  my  dear  brethren,  what  fit  excuse  can 
I  make  to  you  for  the  many  words  I  have  used  about 
myself,  and  not  in  this  Lecture  only,  but  in  others 
before  it  ?  This  alone  I  can  say,  that  it  was  the 
apprehension,  or  rather  the  certainty  that  this  would 
be  the  case,  which,  among  other  reasons,  made  me  so 
unwilling  as  I  was  to  begin  this  course  of  Lectures 
at  all.  I  foresaw  that  I  could  not  address  you  on 
the  subjects  which  I  proposed,  without  introducing 
myself  into  the  discussion ;  I  could  not  refer  to  the 
past,  without  alluding  to  matters  in  which  I  had  a 
part ;  I  could  not  show  that  interest  in  your  state 
of  mind  and  course  of  thought  which  I  really  feel, 
without  showing  that  I  therefore  understood  it,  be- 
cause I  had  before  now  experienced  it  myself;  and 
I  anticipated,  what  I  fear  has  been  the  case,  that  in 
drawing  out  the  events  of  former  years,  and  the 
motives  of  past  transactions,  and  the  operation  of 


393 

common  principles,  and  the  complexion  of  old  habits 
and  opinions,  I  should  be  in  no  slight  degree  con- 
structing, what  I  have  ever  avoided,  a  defence  of 
m  v  self. 

But  I  have  had  another  apprehension,  both  before 
and  since  beginning  these  Lectures,  viz.,  lest  it  was, 
to  say  the  least,  an  impolitic  proceeding  to  contem- 
plate them  at  all.  Things  were  proceeding  in  that 
course  in  which  I  knew  they  must  proceed  ;  I  could 
not  foretel  indeed  that  a  decision  would  issue  from 
the  Committee  of  Privy  Council  on  the  subject  of 
Baptism  ;  I  could  not  anticipate  that  this  or  that 
external  event  would  suddenly  undo  men's  confidence 
in  the  national  Church ;  but  it  required  no  gift  of 
prophecy  to  feel  that  falsehood,  and  pretence,  and 
unreality  could  not  forever  enslave  honest  minds 
sincerely  seeking  the  truth.  It  needed  no  propheti- 
cal gift  to  be  sure,  that  others  must  take  ultimately 
the  course  which  I  had  taken,  though  I  could  not 
foretel  the  time  or  the  occasion  ;  no  gift  to  foresee 
that  those  who  did  not  choose  to  plunge  into  the 
gulf  of  scepticism  must  at  length  fall  back  upon  the 
Catholic  Church.  Nor  did  it  require  in  me  much 
faith  in  you,  my  dear  brethren,  much  love  for  you, 
to  be  sure  that,  though  there  were  close  around  you 
men  who  look  like  you  but  are  not,  that  you,  the 
children  of  the  movement,  were  too  conscientious, 
too  much  in  earnest,  not  to  be  destined  by  that  God, 
who  made  you  what  you   are,    to   greater  things. 


394 

Others  may  have  scoffed  at  you,  but  I  never ;  others 
may  have  made  light  of  your  principles,  or  your 
sincerity,  but  never  I ;  others  may  have  predicted 
evil  of  you,  I  have  only  felt  vexed  at  the  prediction. 
I  have  laughed  indeed,  I  have  scorned,  and  scorn 
and  laugh  I  must,  when  men  set  up  an  outside  in- 
stead of  the  inside  of  religion — when  they  affect 
more  than  they  can  sustain — when  they  indulge  in 
pomp  or  in  minutiae,  which  are  only  then  becoming 
when  there  is  something  to  be  proud  of,  something 
to  be  anxious  for.  If  I  have  been  excessive  bsre, 
if  I  have  confused  what  is  defective  with  what  is 
hollow,  or  have  mistaken  aspiration  for  pretence,  or 
have  been  severe  upon  infirmities,  towards  which 
self  knowledge  would  have  made  me  tender,  I  wish 
it  otherwise.  Still,  whatever  my  faults  in  this  mat- 
ter, I  have  ever  been  trustful  in  that  true  Catholic 
spirit  which  has  lived  in  the  movement  of  which  you 
are  partakers.  I  have  been  steady  in  my  lojalty  to 
that  supernatural  influence  among  you,  which  made 
me  what  I  am, — which,  in  its  good  time,  shall  make 
you  what  you  shall  be.  You  are  born  to  be  Catho- 
lics ;  refuse  not  the  unmerited  grace  of  your  boun- 
tiful God ;  throw  off  for  good  and  all  the  illusions 
of  your  intellect,  the  chains  on  your  affections,  and 
stand  upright  in  that  freedom  which  is  your  inheri- 
tance. And  my  confidence  that  you  will  do  so  at 
last,  and  that  the  bonds  of  this  world  will  not  hold 
you  for  ever,  is  what  has  suggested  the  apprehension, 


395 

to  which  I  have  alluded,  whether  I  have  done  wisely 
in  deciding  on  addressing  you  at  all.  I  have  in 
truth  had  anxious  misgivings  whether  I  should  not 
do  better  to  let  you  alone,  my  own  experience  teach- 
ing me,  that  even  the  most  charitable  attempts  are 
apt  to  fail,  when  their  end  is  the  conviction  of  the 
intellect.  It  is  no  work  of  a  day  to  convince  the 
intellect  of  an  Englishman  that  Catholicism  is  true. 
And,  even  when  the  intellect  is  convinced,  a  thousand 
subtle  influences  interpose  in  arrest  of  what  should 
follow,  carrying,  as  it  were,  an  appeal  into  a  higher 
court,  and  claiming  to  have  the  matter  settled  before 
some  tribunal  more  sacred,  and  by  pleadings  more 
recondite,  than  the  operations  and  the  decision  of 
the  reason.  The  Eternal  God  deals  with  us  one  by 
one,  each  in  his  own  way ;  and  bystanders  may  pity 
and  compassionate  the  long  throes  of  our  travail, 
but  they  cannot  aid  us  except  by  their  prayers.  If, 
then,  I  have  erred  in  entering  upon  the  subjects  I 
have  brought  before  you,  pardon  me ;  pardon  me  if 
I  have  rudely  taken  on  myself  to  thrust  you  for- 
ward, and  to  anticipate  by  artificial  means  a  divine 
growth.  If  it  be  so,  I  will  only  hope  that,  though  I 
may  have  done  you  no  good,  yet  my  attempt  may 
be  blessed  in  some  other  way ;  that  I  may  have 
thrown  light  on  the  general  subject  which  I  have 
discussed,  have  contributed  to  map  out  the  field  of 
thought  on  which  I  have  been  engaged,  and  to  as- 
certain its  lie  and  its  characteristics ;  and  have  fur- 


396 

nished  materials  for  what,  in  time  to  come,  may  be 
the  science  and  received  principles  of  the  whole 
controversy,  though  I  have  failed  in  that  which  was 
my  immediate  object. 

At  all  events,  my  dear  brethren,  I  hope  I  may  be 
at  least  considered  to  be  showing  my  good  will  and 
kindness  towards  you,  if  nothing  else,  and  my  desire 
to  be  of  use  to  you.  All  is  vanity  but  what  is  done 
to  the  glory  of  God.  It  glitters  and  it  fades  away ; 
it  makes  a  noise  and  it  is  gone.  If  I  shall  not  do 
you  or  others  good,  I  have  done  nothing.  Yet  a 
little  while  and  the  end  will  come,  and  all  will  be 
made  manifest,  and  error  will  fail,  and  truth  will 
prevail.  Yet  a  little  while,  and  "  the  fire  shall  try 
every  man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is."  May  you 
and  I  live  in  this  prospect ;  and  may  God,  and  His 
Ever- blessed  Mother,  and  St.  Philip,  my  dear  father 
and  master,  and  the  great  Saints  Athanasius  and 
Ambrose,  and  St.  Leo,  pope  and  confessor,  who  have 
brought  me  thus  far,  be  the  hope,  and  help,  and 
reward  of  you  and  me,  all  through  this  weary  life, 
and  in  the  day  of  account,  and  in  glory  everlasting ! 


OCT  23  1940 


ST  JOHN'S  SEMINARY  LIBRARY 

99  LAKE  STREET 

BRIGHTON,  MA  02135 


^T  JOHN'S  SEMINARY  IiBRARY 

99  LAKE  STREET 

BRIGHTON,  MA  02135 


ST.  JOHN'S   SEMINARY 


3  8151   000  03775   1 


Holy  Redeemer  College  Library 

Washington,  D.  C. 

RULES 

1.  Kindly  remove  borrower's  card  from  book 
and  sign  your  name  in  pencil  on  it. 

2.  File  card  in  borrower's  box  according  to 
the  stack  number  of  the  book  and  alpha- 
betically within  the  number. 

3.  When  returning  book  to  the  library  do 
not  put  it  on  the  shelves;  kindly  leave  it 
on  the  table. 


